


BATIM Drabbles

by nyacat39



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Angst, Drabbles, Fluff, Gen, Probably gonna have a little of everything, and everything in between, mostly for fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 00:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 40,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10910766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyacat39/pseuds/nyacat39
Summary: From moments of the past, to moments of the future and present. These are short tales of the unknown stories of each of the characters seen in Bendy and the Ink Machine. From light hearted moments to the dark, you're sure to find a few stories of each here. Rated T for a few future darker themes.





	1. Swinging with the Devil

Henry sat at his work desk, pen in hand as he outlined the drawing on the paper in front of him. His movement was careful and well practiced to make sure it wouldn’t mess up. It was just him and in his little corner of the world… well until he felt a playful tap on his non dominant arm.

Pulling his pen up to not mess up his work Henry jumped a little from the shock and turned his attention… only to see the grinning face of the very thing he was inking.

**“Still getting spooked by little old me eh?”** The little cartoon devil snickered as he hopped up onto the drawing table. Henry sighed through his nose and smiled a little.

“Well who wouldn’t when the devil comes around,” Henry smiled and went back to work, letting the living toon sit around while he worked. “So what’s on your mind this time little buddy?”

**“Well you’ve been over here all day working. Soo I got ta thinking, ‘Henry must be bored out of his wits, so let’s fix that!’ And here I am ta brighten up this drab little corner~!”** Bendy playfully sang, swinging his legs back and forth from his perch. 

Henry set his pen down thinking it over on if he had taken his break or not for the day… then decided to hell with it and went back to the toon.

“I have some new tunes if you’re interested,” Henry smiled as he stood up with a few stretches, fully intent on grabbing his bag with the records he had acquired. Bendy’s face brightened even more at the prospect of brand new songs from outside the studio. 

**“I’ll grab the record player!”** the toon devil exclaimed and ran out of the room with a pep in his step. Henry could only shake his head with a laugh at how excited Bendy was to dance. It was also still hard to believe for the animator that the little toon had only been alive for only a few months, and how used to his presence Henry had gotten. 

_ Feels like only yesterday he was so confused and curious about everything around him.  _ Henry thought fondly, but it slowly turned into a frown at the reminder of how Bendy came to be… or more specifically how he found Joey messing around with things he shouldn’t have and it brought their creation to life.

Henry and Joey had both been in shock when it happened… but Joey was the first one to be elated while Henry had much more fear for their creation… until the first week had passed and Henry realized how innocent the toon demon was. 

**“I’m back!”** Bendy’s excited voice snapped Henry out of his musings and noticed the record player being carried by the toon. More likely than not it was the one he had snuck out of the Music Department and kept hidden just for these occasions. The toon then set it down into the usual spot and was couldn’t stand still from excitement running through his entire form.

**“Come on, Come on Henry! Hurry!”**

“I’m hurrying little buddy. I’m just not as animated as you,” Henry laughed as he got the first record out and was setting it up in the player. Bendy tried to hold back his own laughter at the pun.

**“What can I say, I’m jazzed and ready to go!”**

Henry chuckled a little and got the music playing. Immediately Bendy started to move to the beat, it may have been the toon’s first time hearing it but from the way he started to dance in time with the beat one could have sworn he had danced to the song for years. 

The dancing demon did his namesake for a few more beats with the animator watching, before the toon went up to the artist and practically pulled him into the dance.

Out of his element Henry didn’t move as fluidly or as professionally as the little demon… in fact it was more like the awkward jig one would do if someone were to put them on the spot. It was stiff and didn’t match the beat of the song to well and Henry was feeling lost the entire time he was dancing with the demon. Feeling embarrassed, even more so from the laughter that came from the living toon.

**“Geez ya still got two left feet Henry!”** Bendy laughed, stopping his dance and grabbed one of the animator's hands when Henry had stopped out of the embarrassment.  **“Come on loosen up! Ya can’t swing if you’re stiff! I’ll show ya if ya want.”**

Henry took a deep breath and let it out slowly, knowing that Bendy wasn’t one to give up that easily once he set his mind to something. 

“Alright, alright,” Henry sighed.

**“That’s the spirit!”**

The toon and animator had their little lessons going for about three songs before Joey himself came in and ruined the moment… for the toon at least, and made Henry go back to work as well as taking the record player away. With a heavy heart Henry went back to inking the pages for the upcoming animation, with Bendy still hanging around in a much less chipper mood now.

**“Stupid Joey… always ruining the fun…”** Bendy muttered as his neckless head rested on the drawing desk. Henry frowned and actually found it a little harder to work now with the upset demon near by.

“Sorry little buddy… we’ve got a deadline coming up…” Henry pointed out but still felt bad as the toon demon’s mood didn’t improve.

“... Tell ya what,” Henry started, perking Bendy up to attention. “We won’t have much to do after all this on Saturday… I’ll bring my own record player and we can start up again then.”

**“... Promise?”** Bendy asked, a hopeful look appearing in his pie cut eyes.

“Promise.” Henry stated with a fatherly smile. The toon cheered up a little more now that he had something to look forward to.

_ Now I just need to make sure I have enough to buy a Record player.  _ Henry thought to himself as he started the ink work on the next batch of drawings.


	2. Reality Hurts

Bendy sat in the chair near Henry’s old desk, his little legs pulled up to his chest as he sat and waited for the animator’s return. He played with a pen on the table with one hand while the other was wrapped around his knees. His friend Boris wasn’t that far away from him, sitting close to the Record Player that Henry had brought and let them keep in his work area to play some tunes whenever he got them.

 **“Ben… when’s Henry coming back?”** Boris whimpered, his ears lowered as his pie cut eyes stared at the empty player just begging for a record to be placed on it. Bendy turned his attention from the desk to his tall friend then turned it to the doorway as if expecting the mentioned animator to walk through any moment now.

 **“Soon I’m sure, I mean today’s Saturday and old Henry’s never missed a swing session Saturday…”** Bendy responded and forced his usual smile on his snow white face to try and reassure his friend… and himself as well. Both toon’s perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps and Bendy’s smile became less forced and more genuine.

 **“See, told-”** Bendy started with enthusiasm only to falter when it wasn’t who they were expecting… it was Alice Angel, the only female living toon in the studio. **“you…”**

 **“Thought I’d find you boys here…”** Alice stated, a sad look in her own pie cut eyes. Boris immediately deflated and whimpered a little while Bendy’s shoulders slumped and he went back to playing with the pen.

 **“... What brings you to this little corner of the world Toots?”** Bendy asked, his eyes focusing on the pen more than anything else.

Alice bit her tongue to prevent herself from lashing out at the “Toots” comment.

 **“Henry’s not coming back you know…”** The angel stated, standing her ground near the entrance to the little area the animator once occupied.

 **“Alright just cuz he’s missed four days doesn’t-”** Bendy started to protest but got cut off by Alice rather quickly.

 **“Henry got deployed, even if he does come back it won’t be for a long time. Joey told me that much…”** she said in an apologetic tone. Her eyes turned to one of the few posters for their shows on the walls then focusing on the other toons. Though just because she wasn’t looking at them didn’t mean she didn’t notice how sad Boris got from the news or how Bendy seemed to be trying to fool himself into believing Henry was going to come back much sooner.

She also really didn’t want to tell them the worst part… that there was a great chance Henry wouldn’t come back at all. Whether it came from the War or from the argument Joey and Henry had before he left. Bendy and Boris had been in the Music Department when it happened and she was looking for something when she overheard everything.

 **“... Look toots I know joke’s ain’t yer strong suit but that one was probably the worst you’ve ever made,”** Bendy nervously laughed and seemed to be trying to keep up a whole ‘Everything’s fine, nothing can keep me down’ air about himself… but seemed to be failing a little as his own usual grin faltered a little.

 **“Say what you will Bendy. I just don’t… Never mind forget it,”** Alice started but stopped when she almost said “Want to see you get hurt” after all he was a demon and she was an angel. As such it was supposed to be natural for them to not care about one another… at least that’s how she thought it was supposed to be.

Not wanting to be around for much longer in that area she was about to leave the room but said one thing back to the toon demon.

 **“Henry’s really not gonna come back for a long time though Bendy… You’re gonna have to accept that.”** Having said her piece she left the area, the more steps she took from the little room the more she felt herself trying to fight back her own inky tears from escaping.

The old animators room was silent for a while after Alice had left. Boris had started to cry not long after, already missing Henry so much while Bendy looked lost.

**_It can’t be true… Henry’s gotta come back. He promised after all… and Henry’s never broken a promise before._ **

Days bled into weeks and Bendy’s visits to Henry’s desk started to become less and less frequent as reality finally started to set in for the little demon.

At first he had messed around and even doodled a few things on the desk thinking about the reaction he would get out of the old animator when he came back… then a few days after Bendy had taken to scattering papers all around making an all around mess almost to spite Henry, even when Boris protested to him about how it wasn’t going to help anything.

But finally, after nearly two months of waiting came the day when Bendy had stepped into the room and finally broke down to cry as he finally accepted that Henry wasn’t gonna come back.

 **_You promised you wouldn’t abandon us!_ ** Bendy thought as his sorrow filled eyes landed on the record player that was left behind.

So many songs had played from that little thing… so many happy moments that filled the majority of his three years of being alive. They all came rushing to the little toon demon making the ink tears that much worse… and a strong feeling to build up in Bendy’s chest.

Through that as well as his own sorrow the toon demon had picked the machine up and then threw it hard onto the ground, causing a large chip to form on the horn and a little more damage to the base.

**“You lied Henry…”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this one had been on my mind for two days now... Glad I finally got it down though. I did say there would be some sad ones so I guess this is just the first one to kick it off.


	3. Present Time: Jesus Christ Joey!!!

“Alright Joey I’m here… what did you want to show me?” Henry called out, slightly annoyed. He hadn’t been back to this studio in thirty years… not since he got drafted for the war. When he came back, nothing felt the same anymore… he couldn’t even bare to come back here, not with the blood on his hands. Sure he kept in contact with Joey up until eighteen years ago, but they lost touch and the last thing Joey wrote him seemed like his old friend and boss was losing his mind. He had also seemed to avoid talking about the Studio or the Main Cast when Henry had originally returned from the war… so he was seeing how the studio was now with fresh eyes. 

The biggest thing Henry noticed was the ink dripping from the ceiling as well as what looked like a few pipes poking through the walls.

_ Those weren’t here before… And when did the studio get so much ink?  _ Henry thought to himself as he wandered through the hall… but paused when he saw a familiar path. Taking it he found himself in front of his old work desk. A doodle of a surprisingly adorable bendy head was on there along with an inkwell with a pen near it, assortment of papers scattered around the table, on the floor… and near a Bendy cut out next to the desk.

“Now little buddy, that wasn’t very nice. You know how Wally is with keeping things organized,” Henry chuckled as he spoke to the cutout as if it was the toon himself. His heart sank a little though with guilt at that thought… after all he did kinda abandon them.

_ I guess an apology is long overdue by now…  _ Henry thought as he stared at the cut out of the toon demon. Thinking it over for a bit Henry found himself sitting down in his old chair, the uncomfortable wood not agreeing with his back but still he found himself picking up the pen and one of the blank papers and began to work. 

He may have been thirty years rusty, and his hands weren’t as nimble as they used to be, but he did good work if he said so himself. It was a simple picture of the main three cast all around a table with a cake that had the word “Sorry” on it. His line work was a little sloppy and he was pretty sure he might have messed a few things up, but still he felt proud about how it turned out with how rusty he was.

_ They always did enjoy one of my “off work” drawings when we weren’t having a dance session,  _ Henry thought fondly as he held the picture up, waiting for the ink to dry as he left his old corner of the world one more time and went back to work on finding Joey… or whatever it was his old boss wanted him to see. When the ink on the page dried enough Henry folded it up carefully and slipped it into one of his pockets and kept his search up.

During his walk he paused at the large inked writing on the wall that read  **_“Dreams Come True”_ ** and stared at it curiously for a moment. 

_ Did Bendy write this? No it’s to high up and evenly lined… Boris maybe? Nah, he would have felt to guilty and would have cleaned it up after the first letter. Alice wouldn’t write on the walls in general… Who wrote this then?  _ Henry pondered as he adjusted his spectacles a bit. He shook it off rather quick though and continued on his merry way. 

Finally he came across a large machine that had “Ink” written on the cylinder part that may have been a holder of some kind.

“...This must be the Ink Machine.”

It only made sense after all. There were so many pipes everywhere and so much ink dripping from the ceiling this must have either been the source… or it might be able to stop the ink flow long enough for him to NOT hear the constant drips of the ink from above to the wooden floor below.

“Wonder how you turn it on?” He pondered out loud after looking the whole machine over and seeing no “On” switch. He turned his gaze to the Bendy cut out in the room that seemed to be staring right at the machine… or was it him? He couldn’t tell.

“You have any ideas little buddy?”

Silence was his only answer and Henry sighed quietly to himself. Clearly he wasn’t going to get anything from being in this room… maybe he could get some answers from another room?

With that in mind Henry once again began to wander the halls hoping to find some kind of clue, or even the faintest sign of life. He got startled when a board fell from the ceiling in front of him.

_ That gave me a spook… Joey really hasn’t been taking care of this place… wait does Joey even own the studio anymore?  _ Henry thought as he tried to get his heart rate to lower. Once his heart rate returned to normal, he took a right from where the board fell, not really paying any attention to the left hallway and found himself in the old break room… that seemed to have a large lever on the furthest wall and six pedestals, each with a symbol on them.

“What does any of this have to do with breaks?” Henry muttered out loud and found a note near the lever. It was instructions on how to activate the machine, written in Joey’s handwriting.

_ Leave it to Joey to make turning a simple thing on into a fetch quest.  _ Henry thought with an annoyed glare at the paper before placing it back where he found it and set off to begin his search… only to get surprised by a cut out Bendy standing right where the board had fallen earlier.

“Who put this here?”

Glancing around to find a culprit Henry found nothing… well except for a horrific sight in the room just down the left hallway he avoided.

“Oh my god…” 

Scooting around the cut out quickly, the old animator rushed as fast as his old legs would allow him to the room and in front of the table… the table that held a cut open Boris the wolf. Henry’s heart pounded and horror was etched into his face as he stared at the poor toon.

“Joey…. What have you done?”

Horror soon faded into a festering anger. Boris would have never done anything wrong. The big guy was like a loveable puppy. Heck he was based on a dog Henry once owned back when he and Joey were kids. 

His body still shaking, Henry slowly went up to the poor toon wolf. Flashes of moments from the war coming to mind as he looked into the gaping chest wound with ink instead of blood dripping out of it and onto the binds that held him to the table. The old animator tried to take the binds off, after all his body shouldn’t be left up here on display it should be respected and buried... but they wouldn’t budge an inch.

Henry cursed and finally let go and stared with sad eyes at the toon Wolf. Boris didn’t deserve a fate like that… and he couldn’t help, him… just like how he couldn’t help one of his War buddies.

Tears started to fall down Henry’s face. Both from how useless he felt and also from the amount of anger he had towards Joey. Was this what Joey wanted him to see? If so he was going to take the wrench from the Ink Machine room and beat him senseless with it… Wait.

_ When the Cast would get hurt they healed quickly with more ink… This table seems to be connected to one of the ink pipes… would… would that revive Boris?  _ Henry thought as he wiped some of the tears from his face. Taking one more glance to the toon he knew he had to give this idea a try. He just needed to gather the items from the pictures.

“Hang in there Boris…” Henry muttered and immediately began to look around the room for any of the items he would need. Briefly reading the words  **_“Who’s Laughing Now?”_ ** and feeling his anger bubbling again from those words, but focused more on his task at hand.

Hurrying from room to room, Henry had found all six items eventually and brought them all to their proper pedestals in the Break Room. He was about to pull the lever when he saw the flashing “Low Flow” on the screen next to it… did that mean he had to turn it on in a different room?

_ Wait the Projector Room!  _ Henry remembered and hurried out of the hall, barely remembering that a Bendy Cut out was once in the hall but was now gone along with the board that held it up. If he paused to properly think about that he would have found it weird… but he didn’t. He was a man on a mission, and nothing was going to stop him from saving one of his friends.

Well except the Bendy cutout that popped out startling him as it popped out from behind the corner to the projector room. He cautiously approached after that and saw it just leaning up against the wall… with no sign of life that had moved it anywhere to be seen. It was around then something clicked in Henry’s mind.

“... Bendy? Is… is this what Joey did to you?” he asked with a cautious gaze at the cut out. No movement… no sign of life came from it and Henry felt his heart sink a little. 

“... Guess that’s to much of a stretch anyways…” Henry sighed and went into the projector room. The minute he stepped in though an animation of the toon demon appeared through the projector booth and played on the wall, accompanied by music that once again startled the old animator.

“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed once it happened and hurried to the other side of the booth to go in and see who was messing with him… only to find no doorway but a button that said “Flow” instead. It had to have been the button he was looking for… but Henry was starting to get uncomfortable in the old studio. He hesitated in pushing the button for a moment, glancing towards the looped animation playing for a moment.

As he did a few memories of the happier times he had with the main cast came to mind. The games he would play with them, the more active ones being taken up by Boris the most. The “Saturday Swing Sessions” Bendy practically invented from the first week he bought the record player. The late nights he choose to stay there, just to comfort the toons and tell them a few stories about the outside world… the Holidays they spent…

As those memories played in his mind the horrific image of Boris’s body came up as well as possible scenarios on what happened to the others… each one more horrible than the last. It was more than enough to help him make up his mind and push the button.

_ If ink gave them life before… I damn well hope it can do it again.  _ Henry thought with a determined expression gracing his face as he walked out of the room. He did pause by the cut out again and more so out of the need of wanting to feel some form of comfort by this point then anything else… he reached out and patted the head of the cut out.

“I’m sorry it took so long little buddy…”

It didn’t feel completely right… but it was enough to settle his nerves a little before going through the halls back to the break room.

_ Whatever Joey did to you guys, I swear I’ll try to fix it… and kick Joey’s ass if I see him again. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I've decided to write anything that takes place in the game's timeline as "Present Day" and these ones are probably gonna be the longest and most focused on Henry and his state of mind for this series.
> 
> Also a heads up there's gonna be another fluff drabble coming soon (tomorrow if I can type it all out before I gotta work)
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!!


	4. A Devilish Gift

Henry was drawing up a few keyframes for the newest Bendy short. Each stroke he did was careful and well practiced, his mind was focused on the task at hand. One mess up would ruin the entire shot.

**“Howdy Henry!”**

Henry jumped in surprise from the loud voice of the very toon he was just drawing… and subsequently ruined the keyframe he was working on. Bendy himself seemed to realize he did something wrong and tried to tiptoe away.

“What do you want Bendy?” Henry sighed after taking a deep breath to soothe himself. Bendy froze and slowly turned to the animator, before straightening up and placed his hands behind his back with a smile on his face as if to say “I’m an innocent Angel who did nothing wrong.”

**“Would ya believe me if I said I just wanted ta see what you were doing?”**

Henry knew what that actually meant… Bendy was bored, no one else was really giving him the time of day and he knew that Henry would take the time to actually give him some form entertainment. 

“Yes actually… Let me fix this Keyframe first.” Henry compromised, getting a much happier smile out of the little toon demon. Bendy pulled up the extra chair Henry requested just for Bendy to sit with him and talk while he worked sometimes, and sat down to watch Henry work for a little bit.

Once Henry finished he set it down with the other keyframes then turned to the toon demon. A small smile starting to cross his own face and making the toon curious.

**“Whatcha smiling for Henry, we didn’t even begin anything…”**

“Do you know what day it is little buddy?”

**“Wednesday?”**

Henry chuckled a little at the response. Yeah it was true… but today was also something important as well.

“One year ago today Joey brought you to life.”

Bendy blinked. Had it been that long already? 

**“I guess so… So?”** Bendy questioned, not really getting the significance of the day in general.

“Well to celebrate there’s something in my bag I want you to grab.”

Curious Bendy did go into the animator’s bag and found two things… a box and a brand new record. He looked curiously up over to Henry as he held both things up to him as if asking if these were what he was looking for.

“Open up the box little buddy.”

Doing as he was told, Bendy’s pie cut eyes widened when he saw what was inside. It looked to be a hat… or something kinda resembling one as it was clearly hand made. It wasn’t rimmed like most hats he would see some of the people wearing, nor was it fancy but it was much more simple and it looked as if it would fit his head at least. It was clearly woven and had a very nice colored pattern on it, something he didn’t see the worker’s hats usually having.

“I know you like to take other’s hats sometimes, so I thought I’d try to make you your own hat. I’m not the best at needle work… so it took a few tries to get it right you know,” Henry explained with a smile as Bendy held the woven hat in his hands, his eyes still wide. 

“Plus that record’s for you as well. It’s a brand new group, and I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of their tunes.”

Bendy was in shock and stared at the record as well. He glanced between the two items for a bit before turning his gaze back to the animator.

**“They’re for me?”**

“All for you little buddy. It is technically your birthday after all.”

Bendy had heard about Birthdays before. Heck when it was one of the animator’s Birthday he saw them all having cake and tossing jokes about another year of living or something, he wasn’t to interested in the event. Well except for stealing a piece of the cake and trying it for himself… then ended up stealing the whole cake and trying to hide with it for the next hour after that.

But that’s all he thought when it came to birthdays. He didn’t think gifts were part of them… let alone that he had a birthday as well. Hell he never really got any gifts before today.

Ink colored tears started to form in the corners of his eyes. Henry got a little worried about the toon. He was about to reach out for the toon, only for Bendy to jump up and hug him, nearly knocking him out of the chair from the sudden force.

**“THANK YOU!!”** Bendy exclaimed, a large grin on his white face as he held onto the animator tight. Henry’s surprised expression soon softened into a small smile of his own as he returned the hug, one hand patting the demon on top of the head in between the horns in a gentle manner.

“You’re welcome little buddy, and Happy Birthday.”

After the hug Bendy practically threw his new record onto the player that Henry left in his work space, wanting to listen to the new tunes as soon as possible and probably even convince Henry to join him in a new swing session.

It was moments like this both of them wished would last forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was just plain for fun since the image came to mind in a mere minute after I finished "Jesus Christ Joey!!!" and I wrote the first part after I finished it as well. Soo here it is finished for now and I'm gonna type up another drabble that popped to mind recently... then I'm gonna take a break and go to a convention for the weekend. (I'm going as Alice Angel for the first two days~)
> 
> Anyways I hope ya'll enjoyed this new little drabble


	5. A Helping Paw, A Sinister Smile

Boris never liked what happened after finding out Henry wouldn’t come home. Joey started to put the budget to… strange things to say the least, one being the Ink Machine. Sure it gave more ink for the animations and hell if he or one of the other toons ever got injured there was sure to be some without having to spend more for it… but even he had to question what all the ink was for.

The next part came to when he found Bendy trying to fix up Henry’s old record player. His best friend wasn’t as happy or chipper as usual and didn’t even seem to be all that focused on trying to fix the thing. When he asked what happened, Bendy stared at him and gave a short answer.

**“Tripped over the darn thing…”**

Boris knew that was a lie though… it was to beaten up to have been from a simple thing like tripping… and Bendy hardly ever tripped on anything. But Boris didn’t want to question his friend more than he needed to… after all Bendy knew Henry longer then he and Alice ever have.

Not only that but Bendy never seemed to fully recover from it either. It broke Boris’s heart to see his best friend not even tap his foot when he would play one of the records he had for the player. Even Alice felt worried for the toon demon… but both had tried many things to try and cheer him up. Things that they would use normally to even get a smile out of the first toon… but none seemed to work. 

**“Maybe we should ask Joey?”** Boris suggested one day, him and Alice standing outside the room where Bendy sat quietly staring at the first record he ever got. Alice hesitated for a moment, her pie cut eyes glancing towards Bendy then back to Boris for a moment.

**“I don’t think he can help…”**

**“Well we gotta try right?”**

Alice bit her lower lip. Another thing Boris had been picking up these past few months, Alice seemed to be more hesitant in speaking up to both male toons… almost like she was keeping something locked away in secret.

**“This… This really isn’t something that should concern Joey you know. Besides… I’m sure Bendy will come out of it eventually. He just needs time,”** Alice finally answered, her eyes staring right at Bendy with a sad gaze. Boris however felt terrible… his best friend was hurting and even he seemed to have trouble getting him to feel better.

**“But… He could probably-”**

**“Please Boris… don’t tell Joey how bad Bendy’s taking this.”** Alice pleaded finally, a concerned, almost fearful look was on her face as she looked up to Boris. The toon wolf was taken back a bit by the plea… after all Alice never looked so… so scared before. But why was she scared of trying to get their creator to help them?

**“Please… Promise me you won’t…”** She was shaking… something was very wrong. Boris wanted to help her… but he felt so confused and lost now.

**“I.. Uh… Alright no telling Joey. Got it,”** the wolf finally agreed and Alice let out a sigh of relief. She seemed to calm down from her earlier fear.

**“Thanks Boris…”**

That conversation had been two days ago now and it was still eating away at Boris. Sure Bendy seemed to have emotionally recovered enough to actually try to smile a bit here and there… but there was clearly still a long way to go.

**_I miss the old happy go lucky Ben… I miss when Henry was around. He would know how to make Bendy happy again… Wait a minute!_ ** An idea struck Boris with his thoughts. He could just write to Henry and get a letter back just for them!

So excited with that idea in mind Boris hurried along and picked up a blank sheet of paper as well as a Pen and Inkwell and began writing a letter to the old animator. Boris wrote about how he was doing, how Alice, Bendy and himself all missed him, as well as a few of the things going on recently. It just flowed right out of him and onto the paper with ease and soon he had written a letter that he felt was worth sending to the animator. Now all he had to do was get it… to… Joey…

**“Oh no…”** Boris winced knowing in order to send the letter he would have to break his promise to Alice. After all Joey would clearly ask who the letter was for and why he was writing it to begin with. The toon wolf stared down at the parchment paper in his gloved hands debating what he should do… until finally deciding to give it to Joey with the truth and his concerns. 

**_I mean, if we can hear from Henry again I’m sure Bendy will be happier… Then after I should apologize to Alice for breaking the promise._ ** Boris decided as he carefully folded up the paper so it could fit into a nice proper letter.

He soon made his way straight to Joey’s office and even politely knocked before entering.

**“Hiya Joey!”** Boris exclaimed cheerfully after hearing Joey’s short “Come in” and entering. The head of the studio looked up at him with a curious look as he closed a book that Boris could have sworn he saw something shaped like a star in.

“What brings you here today my friend?” Joey questioned as he carefully put the book into one of the drawers in his desk. The toon wolf held out the note he worked hard on to the Director.

**“Could you send this to Henry for me? Bendy’s been feeling pretty down since he left an all…”** Boris trailed, noticing a… rather uncomfortable feeling he was finally getting from the creator. Joey gave a small, careful smile and held out one of his hands to accept the letter.

“Of course my friend. Though… I must ask, what took you so long to report on how badly our Star’s been affected by the absence of my old friend?”

Boris could feel a small amount of his own ink sweating down the side of his head from the uncomfortable feeling he got. It just wasn’t right at all and Boris didn’t understand why he was feeling that way… or small sense of fear he had just from looking the creator in the face.

**“Ah… I just…”** Boris hated to lie he really did… but for once his gut was practically begging him not to tell him that Alice made him promise not to.

**“With the deadlines coming up… I uh… I didn’t… I didn’t wanna bother you,”** Boris’s ears flattened against his head with his answer. It wasn’t a complete lie, after all it was the main reason he hadn’t come sooner when he first noticed how upset Bendy was.

Joey however seemed to accept this though and dismissed the toon wolf, who practically ran out of the room… Not once noticing the growing almost evil looking smile that was coming across Joey Drew’s face as he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was an interesting dive on how I picture Boris's personality is like. 
> 
> No Drabbles will be done in the next few days as a heads up for those who might be expecting them soon. I also gotta try to work on other stories so I'll get back to these after I get a little more down for the other stories.


	6. Present Time: What's Even Going On Anymore?

Henry’s eyes opened slowly. He found himself laying on his stomach in a strange room. His vision was blurry and he blinked slowly as he pushed himself up from the wooden floor. 

“My head… what… happened?” He muttered as he pushed himself into a kneeling position and rubbed at his head. He clenched his eyes shut as he tried to remember where he was and why his body felt so sore and in pain… well more than usual that is.

_ I got a letter from Joey… There was a Machine and- BORIS!  _ Henry’s eyes shot wide open as he remembered. Boris was cut open, he went and turned the Ink Machine on and when he checked on the wolf Ink was spraying everywhere. He knew it would take some time to heal and instead of standing there to let the ink spray in his face, he had decided to see if he could speed the process up more if he went straight to the source of the ink and bring it back to the wolf. 

_ The room was boarded up… It… It wasn’t before and… and that  _ **_thing…_ ** _ What… what was that thing?  _ Henry shuddered, his breathing getting a little erratic from remembering the thing… He remembered the oozing ink, the large pointed horns and… and a familiar smile that only belonged to one toon he knew well.

The old animator shook his head hard. He couldn’t… no he didn’t want to believe his friend, his creation was turned into something like that. Nor did he want to believe that… that his little friend had tried to kill him.

_ I have to get out of here. _ Henry thought immediately as he pushed himself up and almost stumbled back when he finally took notice of the three closed coffins in the room, two upright against the wall and one down on the ground. One of the two upright coffins had an ax leaning against it and… he finally noticed the fact that he had woken up right in the middle of a pentagram.

_ Oh God… Joey how far did you really go?  _ Henry shuddered as he carefully went over and grabbed the ax with a shaking hand. The old animator turned to try and leave out the open door, one which he presumed that he had entered from seeing as the other one was boarded up… but found that what laid outside had been collapsed, forcing him to go through the blocked off door.

Using the Ax he cut the boards down and proceeded through at a quick pace, quickly noticing how the building itself seemed to be larger then he remembered. It was… unnerving to say the least. Back where he started he at least knew where everything normally would be and there were only a few changes here and there… but down here he was going in blind.

Speaking of blind, he had to pull his spectacles off his face to clean them a bit before reading the newest writing on the wall he saw… As well as try to place exactly where he recognized the writing from as he read it.

**He will set us free.** Next to that writing was a small cut out of the familiar toon demon and Henry tried to fight off the tears that were starting to form in the corners of his eyes. He just wanted to get out of here… he just wanted to see a friendly face, or hell anything that wasn’t… wasn’t the thing that chased him and flooded the floor with ink as it did.

“What the hell is even going on anymore here?” 

Henry had found a tape recording, which had a voice that belonged to one of his old co-workers, Sammy Lawrence. That’s when it clicked with him on the writing, it was the same as the old music director’s…. What really made him jump was the fact he swore he heard Sammy’s voice, not from the recording but his actual honest to god voice right behind him… only to find no one was there.

“I need to find a way out of here…” 

Henry then hurried and froze before a hallway flooded with ink. He had a terrible feeling about it but carefully stepped in and waded his way through… only to see a figure walking down the hall on the other side.

Calling out to the person Henry hurried as fast as he could to try and hopefully talk to the first friendly face he would find. Though that proved to be useless as the person had vanished, leaving only a Bendy cutout in front of a large Demonic circle. Next to it was a shelf full of Bacon Soup, one of the better products they sold back in the day. Well at least in Henry’s opinion at least, then again most others didn’t agree with his opinion… Joey being a big example.

Henry’s level of uncomfort was practically through the roof at this point as he had to backtrack and press three switches to open the gate to even move ahead.

_ Seriously Joey… Why must everything be so complicated with you?  _ Henry scowled as he entered… the Music Department.

The old animator stood still as he stared at the sign. Memories of old danced through his head. Bendy dragging him down here to listen to the band’s recording sessions. Boris and Alice convincing him to play the banjo a few times while they played their own chosen instruments after hours. Boris being the only real one with talent, while Henry could at least play a few notes on the banjo and Alice was practically a beginner on the Violin. She was determined to learn how to play it though despite all the sour notes she would play. Bendy found he had a hidden talent for Piano though when he would join them in actually trying to play an instrument, but more often than not he seemed to take up either dancing to their tunes when they sounded decent enough… or conducting them in a little over exaggerated way.

Henry frowned softly as he turned his gaze away from the sign and by default the memories as well. As he learned after the war… it’s best not to dwell on the past for long, especially when one's life was in danger. The old animator explored the area, a few things were new to him but other then that everything seemed like it was almost in the exact same place they once were so long ago. Especially the exit… though the large pool of ink was gonna make it hard to leave.

_ Wonder if there’s another way out… or a way to drain all this ink?  _ Henry pondered and flipped the power switch on, knowing for a fact he’s gonna need it to open up the way to Sammy’s Office as well as the Infirmary if his memory served right.

When he left the stairway Henry was soon attacked. They rose up from large globs of ink and pulled themselves on messed up arms towards the old animator at surprising speeds. Henry’s eyes widened at the humanoid faces they had that seemed to be distorted into an agonizing scream. When one of them got within reach Henry’s Fight or Flight instinct finally kicked in and he cut through it with the ax, fear guiding his hand more than anything else.

The old animator during the entire attack from strange ink monsters felt like he was back in the war to the point his breathing was heavy and he felt adrenalin pumping through his tired old bones. A few of the strange beings had gotten him but with the help of the ax he took care of the lot of them.

His breathing and loud thumping heart however didn’t slow down at all. Flashes of the things he did in the war… the people whose lives had ended by his hands flashed through his mind and instead of ink Henry only saw blood on the ax and on his clothing and arms. He felt tears of fear falling down his face and the fear still pumping through his heart… even as some of the ink seemed to just fade away with the ink monsters.

Henry backed up against a wall and slid down into a seated position with tears falling down. He dropped the Ax right next to him as he held up both hands and stared at them quietly questioning what he had done. He tried to reason with himself that they were just made of ink and… whatever Joey had done, but then his thoughts turned to the Cast and almost instantly the thoughts changed from images of people he had to bring down in the war… to his own friends- No… no they meant more to him then that… He realized it more when he returned home way back in the day... they were family to him. The very thought of himself cutting through his own family… it made everything feel worse.

Then, just then, his thoughts settled on one thing. One thing that stopped his own fears and tears as the realization settled in… Joey was the one who had called him back after all these years… Finally allowed him to even enter into the old building instead of changing the lock and not hiring him back… He had been messing in all the dark arts.

_ Joey is the real one at fault…  _ Henry thought as he pulled himself up. His old bones and the lingering pain he had not completely agreeing with him as he did.

_ Whatever those things were… or were supposed to be were made by Joey… They were trying to kill me. I… I may not like it but if they keep coming after me like this… I’m gonna have to suck it up, just like back then, and fight my way out of this hell. Once I’m out though… I’ll come back better prepared. I still have to rescue my family after all. _

Having found his resolve once again, Henry pushed himself onward. After grabbing his ax and cleaning the tears off his face first though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... I'm pretty sure I've been writing Henry with PTSD.... Like it wasn't really my intention from the start of these Drabbles but hey it's how I've been writing it and since in this he WAS drafted for war I'm not really surprised really.
> 
> Gotta love those stories when you write them the characters practically build themselves for you. (Well at least I do since it happens often.)


	7. The First Night

Bendy wasn’t scared… at least that’s what he had been trying to tell himself until a loud bang sounded from the outside of the studio that followed after the loud pounding on the building. Sure he heard rain before but never was it this loud… nor did he ever hear that loud boom follow it before either.

When one sounded very close Bendy dived under on of the tables and started to shudder. Why did it all have to happen when the studio was closed? He was still just getting used to being alone during the night, hell he was still getting used to no longer being two dimensional… this wasn’t helping at all. 

**_Where’s Joey when you need him?_ ** Bendy thought to himself as he shivered in fear under the table. Droplets of ink started to form in the corners of his pie cut eyes as he continued to get lost in his thoughts as another loud boom sounded outside.

**_I-I don’t… I don’t wanna be alone right now!_ **

“.... Bendy?”

The toon’s neckless head perked up at the sound of his name. Did… Did he really just hear someone call for him? Or… was he just imagining things? Peeking out from under the table slowly the living toon’s eyes widened at what, or rather who he saw. It was the other person from that day… the day he first came to life. What… What was his name again?

The human noticed him rather quickly and seemed to fidget in place for a moment as Bendy stared up at his soaked form, trying to remember the name he heard Joey call this man.

“Uh… you… you doing alright little guy?” the human asked, breaking the toon from his distracting thoughts. Bendy noticed how the human slowly approached him and seemed to have a rather large bag with him.

**“Oh! Peachy really! Just… Just grabbin somethin I dropped,”** Bendy nervously chuckled, not wanting this man he barely knew to really know how he was feeling at the moment. Though when another loud boom was heard outside he jumped and practically looked around the area in fear. The toon demon flinched when he felt something on one of his shoulders and soon found it was the human’s hand there. When did he get so close?

“Hey… it’s okay really. Just a storm going on outside is all.” 

Bendy took note of how soothing the man’s voice was. Like he was trying to comfort a child. If he wasn’t scared as he was at the moment, Bendy probably would have pouted and tried to push the guy off him… but as it was the toon demon practically nuzzled closer to the human, just enjoying the fact that he wasn’t alone at the moment.

Henry himself was surprised at the living toon. It’s barely been a few weeks since he found Joey preforming the end of some kind of ritual that brought their creation to life. During the first week the animator actively tried to avoid the toon demon. But more recently he had been seeing, and hearing from the other workers that having the toon around was like having a curious five year old running around.

When he had arrived home from work today he decided to try and give the living toon a chance… and when the rain started he couldn’t help but worry. After all from what the animator understood was that Bendy was made of ink… and the studio was known for its fair share of leaks sometimes. So he decided to grab a few things, blankets, pillows, a few jackets, a book or two and a few cans of food just to name a few. He had a feeling it was gonna be a long night after all.

Now here he was sitting here with the toon comforting him like a small child during the storm outside. Henry was glad he removed his jacket before coming up to the toon… who knows what would have happened if the water from it dripped onto the little guy.

The two sat in silence for a bit, the sound of the rain outside had started to soften and the thunder wasn’t as loud anymore, much to Bendy’s relief. The toon then took the time to actually look up at the animator with a questioning gaze.

**“Thanks and all but… whatcha… doing here anyways?”** Bendy asked, still trying to remember if he heard the animator’s name and also wanting to know why he had come back when it’s clearly not the “work hours” as Joey would put them. Not that he was complaining or anything… he actually enjoyed the company.

“Well uh… Two reasons really,” Henry rubbed the back of his neck, knowing this question was coming up. Bendy stared up at him as he waited for the answers.

“Well… one this place get’s the occasional leak. Wouldn’t want any water to damage all our hard work and force us to start over,” Henry explained, going into his suitcase and moved the blankets and pillows aside to pull out the few tools he brought with him to do a quick patch of any leak he would find. Sure it was usually Wally’s job to do it in the mornings, but Henry made it a habit on the worst nights to come in and do at least a quick run through in the animation department to make sure none of the leaks would mess up their work. Joey and him used to both do it back in the day but more recently it’s just been Henry.

**“The other reason?”**

“... You’ve… You’ve never been through a storm before. S-So… So I thought that… that you might need some company to deal with it,” Henry explained, slightly nervous still… after all he wasn’t sure how the toon would actually handle everything.

Bendy on the other hand was surprised. Not even Joey would spend the night in the animation studio… nor did the studio head ever even think about coming back late at night. Yet this human came back and even seemed prepared to help get rid of the lonely feeling of the night. Slowly that surprise turned into pure joy as Bendy’s signature smile made itself known on his paper white face.

**“Then what are we waiting for? Come on, come on, there’s so much ta do!”** Bendy exclaimed, taking Henry’s hand and practically dragging him through the studio and practically talking a mile a minute and seemed to throw in a question here and there. 

**“Ya know how to play anything?”** Was one of two that seemed to stick out the most, the second being  **“OH how about dancing? Ya know how to do that?”**

Henry couldn’t help but chuckle at how excited the little toon was now, but soon got a little concerned when the toon demon seemed to stop talking and look up at him.

“What’s wrong?”

**“I…. I don’t think I ever got yer name…”**

“Oh,” that made sense, Henry never did introduce himself properly to the toon… he did run from the room when he first saw him after all. “It’s Henry. I’m Joey’s friend… and an animator.”

**“Henry…”** Bendy echoed, testing out the name for a moment before beaming bright and shaking Henry’s hand rapidly.  **“Nice ta meet ya Henry! You already know me after all, but it’s still nice ta meet you!”**

Henry couldn’t help but laugh a little, quietly questioning just what he was so scared of with this little guy, he was almost exactly like the toon he would animate.

“Same goes for me little buddy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was an idea that came to me... the very first time Henry decided to spend the night in the studio as well as them both properly meeting for the first time.
> 
> Bendy stop being cute in these past drabbles, you're supposed to be horrifying in "Present Time" drabbles...


	8. An Angel's Mistake, A Demon's Pain

Alice trudged through an ink flooded hallway, quietly cursing Joey once again for making that cursed machine. It was bad enough that some of the humans nearly drowned in the stuff often but the damn thing had to many problems… though that was the least of her worries with it.

The toon angel had found something in Joey’s office once before… something that worried her more then anything else. When she had found it she wanted to find anyway to take her fellow toons and run away from here. But sadly… she knew that was impossible, they looked to different from the normal humans and… leaving just wasn’t something any of them could physically do. Not only that… but for the past few week she barely saw the two boys and out of her own fear of what Joey might do to her… she took the coward's way and had help in trying to avoid Joey at all cost.

Wally was the biggest help in that department surprisingly, Susie was a close second when she could come in for voice work… but she also found a great help in Sammy for after hours. She just had to promise to only use his Sanctuary when the studio was closed down. When it was that time she would wait for about an hour to make sure Joey was gone before leaving it and would go about looking for her fellow toons.

Which was just what she was doing now, but to her growing fear it was getting harder and harder for her to find her fellow toons these days. Her fears that Joey’s plan was advancing were starting to feel more and more real with each passing day…. And her inability to find her fellow cast with the expanding building and strange happenings going on when the human’s left.

**“Boris? Bendy?”** the angel toon called out, pulling herself up from the flooded hallway. Some of the ink dripped off of her a little while the rest of it easily got absorbed into her form as if it never existed in the first place. A slight scowl crossed her face from that but she shook it off quickly and walked down the non flooded halls. She continued to call out for them as she moved around the halls.

**“Boris? Bendy? If either of you guys can hear me… please… please just… just say something…”** Alice trailed, the small amount of hope she felt starting to fade. Was… was she to late? 

**_Of course I am… God I’m so stupid. I-I…. I should have just told them… But… but how would they have felt to… to know what I do?_ ** The angel thought to herself, her arms wrapping around her in self pity and loathing. 

Suddenly a sound caused her to snap out of it. It sounded like a choked sobbing coming from one of the rooms in the hallway. Quickly deciding to follow it she hurried down the hall to the room and threw the door open. What she found within made her heart practically stop.

Inside was Bendy, sitting in the middle of a satanic circle with candles all around… and his form seemed to be melting a bit. The toon demon was clearly trying his best to keep himself together but was failing as parts of his head dropped down to his body, seeming to form threads that almost made a neck, his arms dropped and dripped, unable to keep a solid cylindrical form for long.

**“Bendy!”** Alice rushed in but stopped just outside the circle, an unknown force preventing her from entering it. Bendy turned to look up at her and she saw that half his face was covered in his own ink and the back of one of his gloves was stained black… almost as if he had been trying to whip the ink from his own face.

**“A-Al… Alice…”** Bendy whimpered, black ink dripped from his mouth as he spoke and his only visible pie cut eye seemed to show pain and the ink black tears that ran free, mixing with his own melting ink.

**“H-Hold on, I’ll… I’ll get you out of there!”** Alice sputtered, and began looking around the room for anything, anything at all that she could use to ruin enough of the circle for her to actually get closer to the toon demon.

She found nothing in the room and began to feel a little bit of her own ink sweat down her brow with worry as she turned back to Bendy who was curling himself into a ball from the pain.

**“J-Just… Just one m-moment! I’ll… I’ll go find something from one of the other rooms t-to… to help!”** Alice stammered and was almost torn about leaving the demon alone from the pleading, scared gaze from the mentioned toon. That look however just filled her up with more determination to get him out of there. 

Alice hurried from the room and began practically tearing the others apart for a bit until she found something that might work. A few bottles of Acetone. To a living toon like her and the others it hurt a lot… but it could also erase the lines to the circle with ease if she was careful. She took them and hurried back to the room Bendy was in.

Once there she finally opened one of the bottles up and with a slightly shaking hand she poured it over one of the lines to the circle, or at least as close as she could get. It slowly started to work from the small amount she used but it wasn’t enough with just one bottle. The second bottle however worked it’s wonders and erased the rest that was needed… though with the second one a little of it got onto her hand and stung a lot.

With the circle ruined and now she felt like she could actually step into it, the female toon hurried in and grabbed Bendy. Her eyes widened with fear at the sight of his legs almost becoming formless masses as he stood, and even the little demon seemed scared as well.

**“Damn it Joey… is this all we are to you?”** Alice cursed quietly as she helped Bendy out of the room and to the ink flooded hallway… she had to get him back to the sanctuary so Joey wouldn’t do… whatever it was he was doing to Bendy, ever again.

As they were about to step into the ink, Bendy froze at the edge.

**“Bendy?”**

**“I-I… I… can’t…”**

**“Can’t? Bendy it’s just ink… it… it might help-”**

**“N-no!”** Bendy screeched, trying to run from the pool but couldn’t properly with how deteriorated his own legs had started to become and fell to the ground with a splat instead of a thump. Some of his own ink almost forming a puddle around him and his own body shuddering in fear from his position.

Realization started to dawn on Alice then… and she stared down at the flooded hall for a moment before looking back towards Bendy, who was trying his best to reform himself with his own ink without the aid of the new ink.

**_Don’t tell me… Oh God!_ **

Just like in the plans she had seen that day… the very same one where she vowed to try and keep Bendy’s delicate emotional state as quiet as possible from Joey had come to be. If Bendy came into contact with any of the new ink from the machine now… he would no longer be the Bendy she knew.

**_He would be a real demon…._ **

Bendy didn’t know that completely himself… but he could sense it and he feared it himself. Alice felt her own ink tears starting to form as she pulled Bendy in close to her, not caring about his melting form at all as she hugged him close.

**“I-I… I’m… I’m sorry Bendy… I’m sorry,”** Alice apologized over and over, a few of her tears landing on Bendy, who held her close as well, needing the comfort just as much as she did.

**_I… I could have found a way to prevent this sooner… I’m so sorry Bendy… I’m the worst person ever._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *face plants into a pillow and screams* I stayed up so freaking late writing this. I was so sure I'd loose this scene/idea in the morning that I pushed myself till 3 AM to write it.
> 
> On the other hand, I can now officially call this an AU of sorts since a lot of these ideas now are more likely then not gonna be far from cannon now. Well seeing as Chapter 3 isn't out yet.
> 
> Also I have no idea what to call this AU yet... eh oh well I'll figure something out.... eventually.


	9. Present Time: Musical Mayhem

“I’m… getting too… old for this,” Henry panted softly as he back tracked for the sixth time to the projector room. Forget how ridiculous Joey could be with making things complicated, Sammy Lawrence was just as bad at this point in Henry’s opinion. Then again Henry shouldn’t have been to surprised… Sammy always had a thing for his music, especially his piano.

Which was why it annoyed Henry so much in trying to find the right notes to play on the damn thing to open the sanctuary while the projector runs. Not to mention his added frustration of having to run from the drum straight to the piano for two  _ specific  _ notes then make a final run to the Bass. It was just another thing to add to his growing list of problems with today in general. The old animator was just feeling done with the day… but also a lingering sense of fear still from everything as well.

It also didn’t help ease that latter feeling from the number of Bendy cutouts that seemed to increase each time he messed up… it also really felt like something the toon demon would do just to spite someone. Just sit back and enjoy watching them mess up so many times, and even secretly move things to make them feel paranoid. Though one thing Henry was glad for with the cutouts… none of them seemed to be trying to interfere with what he was trying to do or actually trip him up, like the real Bendy.

It added a sense of unease for the old animator, but also a pang of sadness. He just wanted to see his real little buddy again, not things that held his image. Henry also wanted to apologize to the little toon so much and tell him how much he missed his and the rest of the toon’s company. 

_ Then again… Thirty years is a little too late now isn’t it?  _ Henry thought with a long face as he sat down to catch his breath before attempting another marathon. He pulled out the picture he drew when he first got there and carefully unfolded it.

The happy faces he drew for the cast felt so out of place in how hellish this studio seemed to be now. The old animator started to feel fresh tears starting to fill his eyes as he stared at his rough drawing.

“I’m so sorry guys…” Henry’s voice shook at his apology. He really wished things could be like back then… he really wished he never got drafted for the war in general.

The sound of two piano notes playing snapped Henry out of his reflections and left him confused. Was he going insane from all the notes he was trying to play?

Just as he was questioning it he heard them again, played at a slower pace this time. Henry could pick up that one was a higher note, the second was lower but it still wasn’t at it’s lowest. Somewhere in the middle maybe?

_ Wait… Who's playing the piano down there?  _ Henry thought after trying to mull over the note’s pitches. Pulling himself up quickly as he could he gazed over the recording room… and saw only the Bendy cutouts down there and whatever… or whoever it was that played the piano had vanished without a trace.

Deciding to take the cautious route, Henry put the drawing back into his pocket and hefted his ax up to investigate the recording room. Once he did return to the room, thankfully not running there this time, he found it was still empty… except for a single cutout still being there unlike every other time he entered. This one was in front of the piano and staring at him like the others… but to Henry it was strange how it wasn’t up in the booth like the others or even in one of the chairs like before.

He cautiously approached the cut out, seeing nothing out of place or even the slightest hint of movement from it as he did.

“... Were… Were you playing that earlier?” Henry questioned his gaze turning from the cutout to the piano for a moment. Silence was his only answer… as to be expected by this point, but still it got Henry thinking. He went up to the piano and hit one of the high note keys, then the other few out of curiosity until one sounded familiar to him. 

_ Is… this one of the note’s I need to play?  _ Henry thought while turning his head to try and look at the Bendy cut out. The old animator practically had a heart attack when he saw that it practically appeared right next to him just as he was looking for it.

“JESUS CHRIST!” Henry screamed, one hand slamming onto the piano for support, a few notes screaming out from where his hand landed, and the other clutching at his heart from the scare. The old animator took a few breaths, calming himself down from the scare for a moment before speaking out with an annoyed tone.

“I’m not as young as I used to be Bendy! My heart can’t take your spooks as easily!”

Silence was all he was met with once again, and Henry felt much lonelier right there. He felt like this place was really getting to him by this point. The old animator swallowed the lump forming in his throat as he went back to the piano and tried to find the second note he had heard. His mind replaying the two notes and comparing them to what he was trying to find.

It took a little bit but he finally found the two that echoed what he heard. Just to be sure he played the two at least two more times and finally nodded… then took to taking small pieces of paper from the lingering sheet paper on the ground and placed them on top of the keys he needed as a reminder. He was about to go back up to the projector booth, mentally preparing himself for another marathon, but paused and looked back to the Bendy cutout that remained where it last was.

“... Thanks Little Buddy.”

Henry then left the room to the projector room… not noticing the smallest amount of ink forming on the cut out and making the ever present mischievous smile look into an almost sad looking smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so the instrument set up is based on the very first one I had to do when I first played chapter two... it took me forever to get it right! 
> 
> Also this is the shortest "Present Time" chapter, mostly because the next one I have a bigger plan for. Or well... at least a bit of an idea for, I'll figure it all out when I reach that area.


	10. Questions That Need Answers

The studio sure got more lively after Bendy’s first “Birthday” with a few new additions to the studio… or rather the fact that Boris was brought to life a week after that special day, and just three months so was Alice. Henry was getting worried… No one other than Joey and himself knew just how they came to be and the “How” made him feel sick.

But, if he was being completely honest… looking at the happy face of Bendy as he showed the others the ropes of the real world and even seemed to get them into the habit of barging into his corner of the studio for anything and everything… he wouldn’t give that up for the world.

Boris was a sweetheart, sometimes asking if there was anything he could do to help the animator, unlike Bendy. Henry learned quickly that Boris wasn’t exactly the best at drawing, but if asked to ink the sketched lines he could do that easily. It really became a help over the month he had been around. 

Now with Alice… well she’s still adjusting, but Susie seemed to be helping her along. Hell Henry was surprised to see the angel without the voice actress sometimes. She may have still been nervous and uncomfortable with being in the real world, but that never stopped her from asking him some questions.

Which is where he is now. Henry was tasked with inking in a few of the inbetweens today when Alice had come in with a troubled look.

“Alice? What’s wrong dear?” Henry asked her, setting the pen down and putting his full attention on the angel.

**“It’s…”** she paused, and looked… conflicted on what to say next. Something must have really been troubling her.  **“... C-Can… Can I ask you something?”**

“You know you can ask me anything,” Henry responded gently, adjusting his spectacles.

**“What… What exactly did Joey do?”** Henry looked confused for a moment before Alice continued.  **“To… To bring us to life.”**

Henry’s eyes widened at this question. Bendy and Boris never asked him that question before… probably because they didn’t think he would know, but… Alice had remembered seeing him there when she was made. The angry look on the animator’s face at seeing what Joey had done two weeks ago.

“... I… I don’t think you should know now…” Henry looked away. He didn’t want to hurt any of the toons with what he knew.

**“Then when?”**

“Just… Just not now… it’s too soon.”

Alice wasn’t dumb. She saw the pained, fearful look on his face, the way he seemed to try to hold back his pain. It was something bad, something that scared him. She had to know, and Joey wouldn’t give her a truthful answer when she first asked.

**“Please-”** Alice tried to plead only to get cut off by an excited shout and a small black figure running past her to hug Henry.

**“Henry~!”** Bendy grinned, not realizing what he just interrupted. Henry was surprised for a moment before he relaxed and patted the little demon’s head, thankful for the well timed interruption.

“Hey little buddy. Sammy finally let you free huh?” The animator chuckled after the quick hug.

**“Nah I just ditched! It got too boring so I booked it the minute his back was turned,”** The toon demon explained, practically going through the motions to match his story.  **“How Nick and the others can stand sitting in the same room for so long, and just reading the same lines over and over is beyond me.”**

**“Who’s Nick?”** At the sound of Alice’s voice Bendy turned, seemingly just noticing that she was there from the slightly surprised look on his paper white face. 

“That would be Bendy’s voice actor…” Henry answered then trailed off, seeming like he was troubled by something. Bendy on the other hand straightened up and gained a more confident expression as he began to go more indepth, almost like he wanted to impress the angel a bit.

**“What can I say, the guy gave me my devilishly good voice but he stinks at keeping himself healthy for as long as I’ve known him. Soo, lately since the guy’s been out for a while now I’ve been having to pick up his slack.”**

**_Hellishly annoying is more like it._ ** Alice thought to herself, with a slight roll of her pie cut eyes.

“Speaking of… Won’t Sammy notice you’re missing by now?” Henry smirked a little at the two. Bendy waved the question off.

**“Don’t worry ‘bout it! Sammy’s not gonna be chasing after me to soon anyways.”**

Confusion set itself on Henry for a moment before something clicked and the animator pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up a bit from the movement and a deep sigh escaped from the animator.

“Please tell me you didn’t lock him in the recording room again.”

**“Wait** **_again?”_ ** Alice was lost, and slowly getting confused… just how many times has Bendy locked Mr. Lawrence in the recording room? WHY did Bendy feel the need to lock him in the room to begin with?

**“... Well it ain’t the recording room this time I tell ya…”**

Henry let out a deep sigh, having a feeling just where Sammy was probably locked away in while Alice wasn’t sure if she was more worried over the poor man… or annoyed at Bendy for even thinking about locking someone up somewhere just to get out of doing something.

The trio had went down to the music department and let the head of the department out of Wally’s janitor closet. Bendy was pouting like a child at having to let the, understandably angry Sammy Lawrence out, and also having to go back to the recording booth to finish recording the song for the newest animation that Henry and the crew were currently working on.

Henry had decided to stay there to help Sammy keep an eye on Bendy and also to help the toon actually cheer up a little enough to actually sound like his usual enthusiastic self for the recordings. As he did that though Alice watched on from a distance, keeping her gaze mostly on Henry.

**_Why did Henry look so upset talking about Bendy’s voice actor? Is… is the guy really sick or is it something else?_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To me this is kinda a meh chapter, I couldn't get the scene of Henry being asked about how the toons were actually made but it took on at least three different forms before settling on this one... which in my opinion was the one that works better then the other two.


	11. Broken Notes, Broken Hopes

After Alice had taken Bendy from the circle almost two weeks ago, things started to go from down hill to out right hell at the studio. 

Bendy could barely keep himself together and couldn’t even touch a drop of ink made from the machine or… well… Alice wasn’t 100% sure what exactly would happen… but from what she understands it would take the dancing demon she knew away. So she’s been trying her best to find ink that wasn’t made by the machine to see if that would help.

It would for a bit with the small amounts she had found… but it wouldn’t last long.

Then there were the increasing amounts of leaks she had to worry about. Thankfully she got a few large rain coats from both Sammy and Wally to keep Bendy from touching them… but for how long? Especially since just the other day a pipe broke and a few of the workers nearly drowned in the stuff. Sammy himself seemed to be throwing it up from being so close to it.

A lot of employee’s quit after that. No one wanted to be drowned in ink after all. Alice only wishes Susie was one of them, especially with the voice actress’s declining health. But the woman was stubborn, and despite passing out multiple times a day she kept coming back. The toon angel was growing more and more worried for her voice actress each day as the human’s health declined more and more.

There was also the fact she only ran into Boris once… and he didn’t completely seem like himself. He was drained of energy, his eyes didn’t seem to focus on anything and he seemed more like he was going through the motions of the day. Worst was he didn’t seem to recognize her at all… or even pay any attention to her.

Next was probably the worst of it all, Joey himself. The man was actively looking for the toon Demon, making Alice have to be extra careful and do her best to carry Bendy to safe locations for the mornings. What also scared her was that he seemed to be more determined to get her to alone. She was scared to find out what for and Alice was slowly starting to run out of excuses.

But the final thing made her nervous about the nights as well. Since Henry left nearly a year ago now no one came into the studio at night… leaving the toons to their own devices for their own part… but recently she swore she saw something moving through the halls. 

It could be from her own paranoia of being caught or found, but she swore one night she saw  _ something  _ crawling down one of the halls, almost like it was searching for something. The angel had avoided that hallway for the rest of the night after that.

**“I… I really wish we could leave this place,”** She muttered while giving Bendy one of the bottles of “outside” ink, provided to her from Wally. The janitor was one of the most helpful people to her for the entire week as he would distract Joey with complaints about pipes and ink overflows so she could sneak away.

**“... but we can’t… ‘else we end up worse then I am right now…”** Bendy replied, taking slow sips of the ink from the confines of his coat cocoon. Alice looked away from the toon, guilt about not being able to do anything else to help him raising up in her chest.

Bendy was more stable now, but small parts of his head still dripped and connected to his body, some of his ink threatened to cover his eyes again with how low it dripped onto his white face, and his arms had a slow drip to them. She couldn’t tell what his legs were like with them being within the raincoat-coon but she knew he was still far from walking normally again.

**“I’m sorry…”** Alice whispered not looking at the demon still.

**_It’s all my fault._ ** That thought echoed in her head, making tears of ink start to form in the corners of her pie cut eyes. Her thoughts cut off when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned to look at Bendy, wanting to push his hand back into the cloth that kept him from the ink leaks.

**“You’re not the one who should be apologizing to me toots,”** the demon had smiled weakly as he tried to comfort her a little. 

Alice whipped one of the tears from her face and was about to pull the demon in for a hug when they both turned in surprise at the sound of music playing. It was faint, clearly at a distance from their location but they could still tell it was the tune to “The Lighter Side of Hell.”

**“Who-”** Bendy started only for Alice to cut him off by gently pushing his arm back into the confines of the raincoats wrapped around him.

**“Stay here...”** Alice ordered only to have her hand immediately grabbed and for her to see the fearful look on Bendy’s face.

**“D-Don’t… Don’t go!”**

Alice bit at her lower lip, she wanted to check out just what was playing the music… but from the look on Bendy’s face she also didn’t want to leave the scared little toon. It was almost the same for every morning when she would leave him for a bit… she was scared to leave him alone just as much as he seemed to be scared of being alone now.

However the thought of Joey finding him again and finishing whatever he was doing to the toon caused her worry to dissolve into determination.

**“Someone has to check it out… It could have been something falling that turned it on after all.”**

**“Alice….”**

**“I’ll be back soon… just… just stay put alright?”** She smiled gently and had her own hand wrap around Bendy’s and squeezing it gently, the feeling of his gloved hand still not being 100% stable under her own was very clear. Where it in the past she would have avoided doing anything like that out of her own petty feelings towards the demon stealing her spotlight often… but with what he had gone through her guilt outweighed anything else.

Bendy looked down, returning the gentle squeeze back to the angel… then looked up to her with a strained grin.

**“Staying put isn’t for me toots…”**

Alice gave her best deadpanned look to Bendy.

**“I’m not carrying you with me.”**

**“I promise not to complain about how slow we’re going this time!”**

**“You’re the main reason I’ve gotta go slow.”**

**“I… Won’t struggle as much?”**

**“Was that a question or a shaky promise?”**

**“Uh…. um… Please?”** Bendy gave his best puppy dog eyes as a last resort. Alice for a little bit didn’t seem to be phased by it but did actually think it over for a bit.

**“... Fine, but no complaining.”**

She had picked the demon up, struggling a little with his weight but recovering kinda quick as she adjusted herself better. Bendy however frowned at the fact he was faced behind her instead of riding on her back like usual. He was about to say something about it when Alice reminded him to “Not complain about it.”

Bendy still wasn’t a fan of the speed they were going at as they got closer to where the music was playing. He did grimace as they passed a few ink leaks and surprisingly large puddles, pulling the coats around him a little tighter at the sight of them… but something caught his eye as they slowly approached their destination.

**“Hey Alice….”**

**“You said you wouldn’t complain Bendy.”**

**“Yeah I know… I just got a question for ya.”**

**“Hm?”**

**“Do ink puddles usually make people torsos that move on their own?”**

**“... What?”** Alice stopped and turned her attention behind her… only to see the very thing Bendy mentioned. It was pulling itself out of one of the larger ink puddles, making groaning noises and it seemed to focus on them. 

Her heart pounded in her chest as she stared at the… the thing. The tune of “Lighter Side of Hell” seemed to increase in volume in that moment, and it seemed to make the thing struggle more to get itself going and eventually pull it’s half formed body along to go after the toons.

Alice quickly turned on her heels and dashed as fast as she could with Bendy in her arms away from the thing. She couldn’t risk setting Bendy down there to hit the thing…. But even then she had no idea just  _ what  _ that thing was. All she knew was that she needed to get Bendy and herself away from it.

As she ran, she never noticed Sammy himself stepping out of one of the hall corridors with a dazed look and ink dripping down from the corner of his mouth and stare after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this one was fun to wright... though I still need to kick my habit of staying up at ungodly hours to write or draw things... but I'll be damned if I didn't finish writing the idea down before I lost it!! Anyways hope you enjoyed a bit of Alice and Bendy bonding as well as the appearance of the Searchers!


	12. Broken Notes, Broken Hopes: 2

Alice ran as fast as she could with Bendy in her arms. The toon demon was slowly starting to get more and more scared the longer he stared at the inky torso chasing them. He was also scared of the increased amount of ink in the hallway. He held the angel tight when he saw more of the ink torsos pull themselves out. 

**“Alice there’s more now!!”** Bendy panicked, it also really didn’t help he felt himself loosing what little stability he had for a while.

**“Damn it!”** Alice cursed and tried to find something or somewhere to hide. She luckily found it in the form of an ajar door. She darted right into it and then slammed the door behind her, before pressing her back against it to make sure those… those things didn’t get in.

She waited on baited breath, listening as the creatures groaning grew louder and at least one of them scrapped at the door a bit, making both her sweat a little bit of her own ink and for Bendy’s melting form to drip a little more from his own fear.

A few beats passed until finally it went silent on the other end of the door and both toons let out a shaky sigh of relief. Alice slid down the door into a seated position with her fellow toon still in her arms. 

The two toons sat there, both of them shuddering a bit as they tried to recollect their thoughts and try to figure out just what happened… only for Alice’s eyes to widen at the room they were in.

**“Bendy…”**

**“Yeah?”**

The room looked like it was coated with ink, one of the pipes on the wall looked like it had a steady stream of ink flowing out of a crack. Very few places were dry from the black liquid and in normal cases this would be an annoyance for the living toon… but at the moment it seemed more like a time bomb waiting to go off and she was just watching the clock tick down.

**“Stay wrapped up… as tightly as possible please…”** She pulled the hood of one of the coats over Bendy’s head more as she stated. Her eyes still on the scene as if she was stuck just staring at a train wreck.

**“Not much else I can do toots…”** Bendy muttered, slightly annoyed at having most of his vision covered by the hood as well as some of his own ink. He grimaced at the thought of needing another bottle of “outside” ink so soon after the last one, especially since he felt a little more droopy now.

Alice was about to try to stand up when she realized her first problem… she was still holding Bendy and leaning her back against the door still. She needed to find a way to readjust herself to properly stand back up… Her second was the fact she felt scared to even try to put Bendy down just to stand herself up. With all the ink everywhere and if even a small amount of Bendy got hit by the ink… she still wasn’t sure but she feared it might lead straight to something terrible. 

It really didn’t help when they heard a knock on the door. Both had practically screamed at the sudden, albeit more polite noise… but it also backfired a little as Alice jumped away from the door and accidentally knocked herself and Bendy to the ground.

Alice panicked for a moment, worrying if any of the ink got onto the demon, but also used that to her advantage to push herself up again quickly. Thankfully for her Bendy didn’t… but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel his own ink sticking to more of the coats then before.

The door opened slowly and Alice was prepared to run again… until she saw it was the music director Sammy Lawrence. The toon angel relaxed at the sight of him, but was a little concerned. After all… the workers usually weren’t here around this time.

**“Sammy? What are you doing here?”**

Bendy blinked at Alice’s question and tried to turn himself around in her grip to get a better look at Sammy… but the jackets covered some of his vision to the point he couldn’t even see the music director. He didn’t dare take them off though…. Not with all the ink from the machine in this room.

Silence was her only answer. A blank lifeless stare was all she received from the music director as he slowly walked into the room.  Alice took a step back, feeling the sticky ink below her shoes as she felt uneasy with her human friend.

**“Sammy? W-What’s… What’s wrong?”** Alice tried again, a trickle of fear started to burn in her very being. Bendy himself started to feel the same way as he held tighter to the angel then he did before.

That’s when the muttering started, neither of the living toons could make out exactly what was being said… but from what they could pick up it was almost a version of Boris’s “Sheep” song. Sammy continued to slowly approach the two which made Alice only back up further, trying to keep a good distance between her and Sammy. Bendy himself grew more and more fearful the further into the ink filled room they went.

**“Sammy-”** Whatever the angel was going to say next was instantly cut off by her own scream as something grabbed her leg.

**“ALICE!”** Bendy screamed as the mentioned angel was pulled down hard to the ground and forced to let go of the demon. From what little he could see, one of those torso things had pulled itself out quickly and was dragging her further into the room where a few more of those  _ things _ started to pop up.

Alice screamed and kicked at the ink monster, after three or four of them it’s head as well as the rest of it’s body dispersed back into the ink…. But that one was soon replaced with the other monsters crawling out after her.

Bendy was practically frozen in horror. His first instinct was to claw his way out of the jackets and run in to help his friend… but it was quickly followed up with his paralyzing fear of the machine’s ink that rested in the room. Not to mention the fact that Sammy seemed to have gotten close enough that Bendy could hear his mutterings more clearly.

_ “Sheep, sheep, sheep… it’s time for sleep… rest your head, it’s time for bed now. In the morning you may wake or in the morning… you’ll be dead,”  _ the music director seemed to repeat that same thing quietly as he blankly stared on as Alice fought tooth and nail against the increasing amount of ink torsos clawing their way towards her.

**“S-Stop it…”**

Alice got pinned down by three of the ink abominations and more crawled towards her groaning loudly. 

**“P-Please…”**

The angel struggled and fought with all her might but the numbers were getting too much for her and seemed to only be increasing with every “Dead” Sammy muttered in his seemingly hypnotized state.

**“STOP IT!!!”**

The demon screamed and jumped out of his only protection from the ink around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, seems like you guys wanted a continuation of the last one so I delivered. Now I'm gonna work on the next "Present time" one and then try to get another fluff one out to make up for this darkness.


	13. Present Time: Reunions

_ Why… is it always… the head?  _ Henry thought as his eyes slowly opened up. Everything hurt, mostly his head. As he woke he heard a voice, he couldn’t completely make out what was being said and his vision was really blurry… but he could make out a black figure in white overalls in front of him.

_ Boris?  _ Henry thought in his groggy state only for it to really hit him… that wasn’t Boris’s voice. The old animator’s eyes widened as he finally took in just what was standing in front of him. A tall, lanky figure that dripped with ink with a ink stained mask of Bendy covering the face and a pair of overalls, just like Boris’s pair, covered most of the legs that ended in large puddles instead of feet.

Henry was in too much shock to even speak. He recognized the ranting voice of the thing in front of him as well as the mannerisms right down to the dramatic flare in how it… no  _ he,  _ expressed himself.

_ Sammy Lawrence… Wait, what-  _

“Wait… Your face… it seems familiar…” It, no Sammy, leaned in. Practically drinking in the old animator’s face. Henry pressed his back closer to the pole, which he was now just realizing he was tied up to, just to escape from the nightmare that was once a co-worker of his.

“Sam-” Henry started only to be cut off by the former music director.

“Not now. For our Lord is calling to us, my little sheep. The time for Sacrifice is at hand.”

Sammy had backed off from the old animator as he seemed to now get lost with his own words.

“And then, I will finally be freed from this… prison. This inky… dark… abyss I call a body.” 

If Henry could see Sammy’s face behind the mask he swore he would have seen the most hated glare as the ink covered man stared at his own hands.

“I… I don’t-” Henry tried to start up, struggling a little with the ropes around him before the former music director held up his ink covered hand to the old animator’s face.

“Shhh… Quiet! Listen!” 

The sound of banging above started to sound, making Henry’s already pounding heart feel like it was now trying to break out of his ribs like a jackhammer.

“I can hear him. Crawling above. Crawling!” Sammy laughed a little, clearly deranged in whatever the hell was going on here. The sound above sounded like it was getting louder and so to did Henry’s heart beat. Sammy himself seemed to switch from his excited mannerisms to a more… professional one, though he was still shaking with joy.

“Let us begin. The ritual must be completed!” Sammy then turned to look Henry dead in the eye, freezing the old man in place.

“Soon he will hear me… he will set us free.” 

The former music director then turned and walked away through an open door. As soon as he was out of sight the old animator began to struggle with all his might just to get out. 

_ Whoever this  _ **_he_ ** _ is I don’t want to meet him! I didn’t survive a war just to be killed in some… some cult ritual!  _ Henry thought as he continued to struggle against his binds, wishing he was just a few years younger so he could break out easier. He didn’t pay attention to Sammy’s voice from the speakers until a familiar name came from the raving man.

_ “Hear me, Bendy!” _

Henry stopped his attempts in pure shock. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his thumping heart dropped.

“... B-Bendy?” 

_ N-No that… that can’t be right. Bendy isn’t like that… it… there’s got to be some kind of mistake!  _

_ “I Summon you Ink Demon! Show your face and take this tender sheep!”  _ Sammy called through the speakers only to be followed up quickly by what Henry could only describe as the sound of a monster growling out at the music director. He couldn’t see what was going on, only the open gateway before him and the Axe not to far away.

_ “No! My Lord! Stay back! I am your prophet! I am you- AAAHHH!!!”  _ Sammy’s scream at the end made Henry’s scared expression turn to one of pure horror, even more so from the squelching noise he heard through… the same noise that he would hear when he cut through one of the “Searchers” as he took to calling them. 

Henry was frozen, even as the room shook. Memories from the war flashed up from hearing Sammy’s cries. Memories of the people that had died by his hands or someone else's flashed before his own eyes that now stung with horrified tears. He barely noticed when the ropes that tied him up seemed to have been cut by something behind him until he nearly toppled face first to the ground.

That alone had snapped him out of it and with the room itself still shaking his fight or flight instincts kicked in and he rushed for the Axe, his mind to chaotic at the moment to even question just how he got out of the ropes.

“I need to get out of here!” he ended up exclaiming out loud as he rushed for the only open door with the Axe in hand. Adrenaline pushing his old body to go as fast as it could and even cutting through the few Searchers that attempted to attack him as he bolted. Not looking back once to even notice the small puddle of ink that was behind him… nor the fact that it followed him.

He used the axe to cut through most of the path only for it to break at the end of it and the old animator cursed his luck… but thankfully the room was no longer shaking… then again there was only one path he could take now and that lead through the largest amount of ink in one room he had seen so far.

_ Better then going back to…. To whatever was going on back there….  _ Henry was still in denial… he didn’t want to believe that his little buddy… the very same toon demon he thought of as his own son was some sort of monster now. He moved forward for a little bit before something jumped out of the ink and he screamed.

There was no denying it now in his mind… that  _ thing  _ looked so much like his little buddy… albeit bigger and more demonic looking but there was no denying that infamous smile nor those horns and ragged white bow tie. Henry bolted down the… surprisingly now opened path to his left as fast as his muscles would push him, not questioning how the once closed off path had opened but also wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Henry ran straight through the door at the end of the hall and slammed it shut behind him, even going as far as to shove a large wooden block into the latches to prevent it from opening.

He backed away from the door as he heard that  _ thing _ slamming into the door, trying to get in. The banging on the door soon stopped, but the loud beating of Henry’s heart didn’t at all. It was made worse when he felt his eyes watering up once again.

_ Bendy…  _

All the adrenaline in his veins started to fade away, leaving behind only the pain and fear he had. Henry practically collapsed onto the ground once his rush ended. Shock was starting to settle in as he really thought everything through.

_ Sammy… That thing… That couldn’t have been… but Sammy… Oh god Sammy.  _

The man’s screams echoed in Henry’s head, causing the man’s fists to unconsciously curl tightly into balls as they tried to grip something. His whole body shook and he was slowly getting lost in memories… until the sound of a can being kicked snapped him out of it.

“Who's there?!” He called out. He got no response for a bit and the old animator took a deep shaky breath, trying to calm himself down as he continued. “Show yourself… I know you’re there…”

He was ready to accept his fate by that point in time… what he wasn’t expecting was Boris to step out and tilt his head in curiosity while looking at the old animator, alive and well.

“Boris?” Henry was shocked… but also cautious now. After all everything down here so far seemed like they wanted to kill him so far… even Bendy. The old animator balled his hands into fists, ready to strike if needed.

**“... Henry?”** The curious look on the wolf’s face slowly turned into a large excited expression as he recognized the old animator. Henry himself was stunned as the toon wolf rushed up to him and practically jumped on him, enveloping the man in an excited hug.

If Henry wasn’t already in pain, the force would have hurt him a little… but since he was hurt already it was much worse for the old man. Didn’t really help he wasn’t as young as he used to be either.

“B-Boris…” Henry wheezed, internally happy that Boris wasn’t trying to kill him like everything else. Though he could do without the pain in general.

**“You’re really here...”** Boris smiled, nuzzling into Henry’s ink stained shirt. The old animator swore he could feel a few small drops of cold ink from the tall toon’s eyes drip through his shirt.

“H-Hurts… Boris…” Henry breathed, relieved that the toon wolf finally let go of him, but was also a little sad himself that it had to end… then again he’s more then happy to see that Boris is alive and alright now.

**“Sorry Hen… It’s just… we missed you…”** Boris looked down, a little upset at himself for hurting the animator, but perked right up when he felt a comforting hand get placed on his head.

“It’s alright… I missed you guys too.”

As the two began to have a moment neither of them noticed the Bendy cutout making itself peek out at them from the corner of the hall and then pulling back to it’s former place quickly. A small pool of ink dripped off it and seemed to move itself away quickly into another direction of the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I can say for sure that the next "Present Time" chapter will kick off far away from the games cannon since Chapter 3 isn't out yet. I have an idea for another past chapter to add more fluff to hopefully make up for a lot of the emotional pain I might have caused in past chapters.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it!


	14. Doodling Demon

Bendy was getting nervous. Tomorrow was an important day and he wanted to finish what he was trying to do as soon as possible, but he was struggling to get it right. He was gonna ask Boris to help but stopped and decided against it… this was something he wanted to do on his own. 

**_Come on Bendy… You got this!_ ** Bendy thought to himself as he put the pen to the paper and began trying to draw. The little demon was completely focused in his drawing that he didn’t even hear Alice walk up behind him until she spoke.

**“What are you drawing?”**

Bendy jumped up with a surprised yelp, but thankfully not ruining the progress he made on his drawing. Letting out a shaky sigh Bendy turned to Alice and attempted to cover up his drawing.

**“Nothing.”**

Alice quirked a brow and attempted to get a better look at just what the demon was working on. Bendy however just put his whole body over his drawing in attempts to hide it. The angel however was relentless in trying before she seemingly backed off, letting Bendy relax for a bit… until she reached out and picked his head up from his body.

**“Alice!”**

The angel hummed a little as she held the toon demon’s head out of the reach of his own body, which acted accordingly and practically tried to jump up and retrieve it’s own head. While Bendy was distracted she took the time to see exactly what he was drawing.

From what little she could tell from the page… it kinda looked like Henry, if the animator was an unfinished cartoon character drawn by a five year old.

**“Are… You trying to draw Henry?”** Alice squinted, making out the few distinct features that said it was the animator. Bendy soon recovered his head back after the question and a shade of grey made itself known on his white face. 

**“Y-Yeah…”**

**“Why?”** Alice was genuinely curious. Bendy shifted a little, muttering something that the angel couldn’t hear.  **“What was that?”**

**“... Henry’s Birthday’s comin’ up…”**

Alice blinked at that. She hadn’t been around long enough to pick up on these “Birthdays” like Bendy has, but taking in the scene around her from the crumpled up paper almost overflowing a nearby trash can, the nearly empty ink bottle… and at least two completely empty ones, it seemed to be important enough for Bendy to be working so hard on the drawing.

**“... It’ll be a waste if you mess up again.”** Bendy snapped to attention at Alice’s words as she picked up the drawing. 

**“H-Hey!”** Bendy protested and was about to jump up to snatch it from her hands, until she set it down onto the other side of the drawing table and pulled up a fresh sheet. She then patted the chair for the little demon to jump onto… which he did and he watched as she walked away for a moment only to come back with a pencil and sharpener. 

Setting the sharpener down Alice took the pencil and drew a quick circle and a few lines running down from it, building up a stick person with a few other circles to act as joints for properly posed arms and legs as well as a few blocks to help build up the body.

**“Take your time… If this is really that important for you don’t go rushing ahead and getting messy results,”** Alice offered, then looked down to the smaller toon after doing the quick little build up drawing and handed him the pencil.

**“... You know how to draw?”** Bendy asked, looking up at the angel with a curious gaze, after all he never took her for the artist type. Alice’s fingers carefully grabbed a strand of her ink black hair and played with it as she avoided looking the little demon in the eyes.

**“I… only really picked up how to build poses… I don’t have enough patience for the rest of it…”** Bendy couldn’t help but laugh a little at how embarrassed Alice seemed to get from admitting that out loud. She really was a prideful angel after all. 

Alice’s embarrassment only got worse after hearing Bendy’s laugh and she glared at the demon who just smirked playfully up at her.

**“Wow an angel with no patience, what is this world coming to?”** Bendy laughed, he couldn’t help it, he just had to mess with her a little bit. Bendy always loved to get reactions out of Alice and this one was no exception. 

**“Says the demon who can barely sit still!”** Alice exclaimed as she turned towards the exit and marched off, not even acknowledging Bendy waving her off with his mischievous expression still on his face. 

As soon as she was out of sight Bendy turned back to the paper and a thoughtful look crossed his face… the pose Alice had drawn was pretty simple… and it would be a shame to just let it go to waste. An idea came to the little demon’s mind and he immediately got to work with a whole load of enthusiasm and inspiration behind him.

When Henry came into work the next morning he was surprised to see Bendy fast asleep at his work desk. His head was resting on his arms like a pillow, his body slumped forward with his legs hanging limply over the large chair’s edge… and what looked like a drawing that was half covered by the sleeping demon’s head.

From what the animator could see of it it looked like a humanoid character’s head. Not wanting to risk ripping it up even by accident, Henry gently nudged Bendy a little attempting to rouse him from his sleep.

“Bendy. It’s time to wake up little buddy,” Henry spoke gently, earning a little tired grunt from the living toon.

**“It’s to early….”** Bendy muttered, as he tried to move away from Henry’s hand in his sleep. Henry couldn’t help but chuckle a little at that.

“Alright… guess you don’t want the cake I brought then.” That woke Bendy up. After his first experience with cake Bendy was practically addicted to the sweet baked good and would attempt to take any cake that came into the studio.

**“No, No I do!!”** Bendy’s expression reminded Henry of a child who was told that, no he could not have a puppy. The animator couldn’t help but laugh a little as he patted the demon’s head a little bit.

“I know little buddy,” Henry smiled, and then noticed the rest of the drawing which changed it to a surprised look. Bendy seemed to take notice of Henry’s gaze and almost immediately became sheepish.

His drawing was an attempt at making a cartoon version of Henry himself using the pose that Alice built, making him look proud with his arms at his side, and deciding to add a little more to it the demon had added himself, Boris and Alice into the mix. He would admit now that he did get a bit of sleep it didn’t look as good as any of the animators work and looked like it was made by a child with how jagged and unfinished it looked.

“Did you draw this?” Henry asked, gently picking the drawing up and really looking at it. Bendy got more nervous at that. 

**“Uh… Y-Yeah. Took me all night really… Ya know for the special day n’ all...”** Bendy was practically screaming internally at himself about how bad it was. What made him think that something that bad would be a good gift for the animator?

“I love it Bendy.” That line alone made Bendy’s doubt turn into confusion… before it started to slowly build up into pure joy at seeing the beaming smile on Henry’s face as the human looked at his work.

**“Really? Ya mean it?!”** Bendy was on his feet now, practically bouncing in excitement and all previous self doubt seemed to have been thrown out the window.

“Of course I do, hell you did a really great job on this.” Henry’s complement alone practically made Bendy scream in delight. The toon couldn’t help himself but start rambling on about the whole process, and Henry listened but was also busy thinking about just where he should hang the drawing up when he got home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With Father's Day coming up I thought "Hey let's do something like that for a fluff chapter!" Then I looked it up and Father's day wasn't that big until the 1970's.... SO I decided to change it around to something else that would work all the same!
> 
> Don't worry I'll go back to the pain and suffering corner of these Drabbles with the next one... trust me I'm already feeling sorry for even thinking about it... But hey I've accepted that everything I write now a days just goes from fluff to dark in the blink of an eye.


	15. Broken Wings

Alice was counting her blessings on just how lucky she’s been so far during the… how long has it been now? Three years? Ten? Maybe more? She didn’t know anymore… it’s been to long and she had no indication on exactly how long it’s been… but she knew it’s been a very long time, and that she hated every minute of it.

She hated having to sneak around the whole place in fear, having to avoid large puddles of ink like the plague, being unable to sleep for long when she would get tired, having to hide from those damn ink monsters as well as Joey and his helpers… having to watch as her friends disappeared from her life one by one. 

**_Hopefully… this will at least fix a few things…_ ** Alice thought to herself as she looked down to the papers in her hands… pages she had stolen from Joey’s book that brought them to life. She was working on the circle it described with ink, pausing every so often to double check to make sure everything was correct.

It was risky… even she had to admit that… but the pages described how to “Fix” something that was corrupted by other rituals. The main things she needed were candles, taken from Joey’s other ritual rooms, the circle, the one effected by the ritual (she was gonna work on that one soon) and something important to the one who the ritual was intended for.

The last part was what really had her worried and concerned… was Henry’s old Record player really going to work? Was the knitted hat, the jackets or any of the records from the outside world gonna do the trick? She wasn’t sure which one was more important to Bendy but she wasn’t going to let that keep her from trying… or even having all of the ones she was able to salvage placed near the circle.

**_Hopefully one of those will work… now for the hard part…_ ** Alice thought as she finished the last line of the circle. She pushed herself up off the ground, wincing a little from pain… she had been avoiding trying to absorb any ink from the machine to heal herself for a while. She didn’t trust it at all, not after everything that’s happened with the cursed liquid.

She still had healing cuts and swore she had a few bruises from the few fights she would have with the ink monsters, but they were at least healing slowly without the aid of ink. That was one small blessing she had to guess… though the feeling of pain was still something she could do without often.

Once she was up on her feet again she went over to the doorway of the room and grabbed one of the old employee’s jackets she saved and pulled it around her. Better to keep most of the ink off her but would also draw some attention to her. Alice then picked up the makeshift bag she had with a few bottles of Acetone in it. One of her best weapons on keeping safe but even she knew what she had was limited by this point. 

**_Last I checked there were only 8 bottles of it left…_ ** She thought sadly as she peeked into it for a moment, confirming that there were indeed only the 8 bottles left… she knew that when she got down to the last bottle she would be doomed to meet the same fate as her fellow toons… mindlessly following Joey and his deluded visions… and being nothing more than shells of their former selves.

She shook her head from those thoughts as she trekked out of the room. The angel hurried through the halls and up a flight of stairs before finally reaching the animation department. The hum of the ink machine shook her to the core as she pulled the jacket tighter around her in a way to try and sooth her growing fears.

**_Come on Alice… you can do this! You… you have to after all… for them…_ **

The angel quickly passed through the halls to her destination… the pedestal room. The items were suspended in their proper places and practically ringing out the evil energy needed for the cursed machine. 

Carefully the living toon snatched one of the items, the Bendy toy. She hissed in a bit of pain from the foul energy that it was once giving out but sighed in relief once it faded… and the other items in the room dropped onto their pedestals and lost their own energy. The distant hum of the machine also stopped and Alice knew right then and there… she couldn’t waste anytime now, especially given how easy this turned out to be.

The angel stuffed the doll into her bag and ran out of the room only for her feet to meet a fresh flood of ink in the halls. Her eyes widened and she ran as fast as she could when she heard the bubbling beginning in the pool of ink. This was sooner than expected.

**_Joey was expecting this wasn’t he?!_ **

The angel dashed through the halls, the coat trailing behind her and her hands holding her makeshift bag close to her. The sounds of something big splashing through the ink behind her confirmed her thoughts on who was chasing her… after all what better way to guard the machine then to put a demon in charge of it.

A monstrous roar sounded off behind her and she cursed herself internally as she saw some of the ink torso monsters pulling themselves out of the flooded halls in front of her. Shoving one of her hands into the bag she grabbed one of the Acetone bottles and opened the top before throwing it with all her might at the monsters. 

The ink remover did it’s job well as they melted down into screaming puddles  that she ran around… getting the slightest glimpse of what was once Bendy chasing her from behind and gaining on her.

The demon was far larger than she was, nearly taking up the whole hallway and dripping ink from all over his massive form. The horns atop his head were much longer and sharper looking than the normal short nubs he originally had. His once white gloves were ripped to shreds from massive dripping claws and his signature white bow tie was in ruin as well. It’s face was mostly covered in ink save for one thing… his smile that was once full of mischief and joy was now one of sadistic cruel pleasure as he chased his former friend.

Alice felt her own tears start to form in her eyes as the image burned into her mind once again. Seeing a friend of hers like this hurt more then anything else that was ever thrown at her. Especially since he only got this way because he wanted to save her.

**_Damn it Alice! Snap out of it… You have work to do!_ ** The toon angel shook her head and focused on her path towards the designated room. She was almost there, and that meant Bendy was almost there as well.

Once she saw the doorway she turned quickly into it, hitting her shoulder hard on the door frame and biting back a scream of pain as she stumbled in.

**_Just a little further… Get him into the circle… then you’ll be-_ ** Her thoughts got cut off when she soon found herself being thrown hard into a wall with the worst pain in her side she had ever felt.

She let out a choked scream as her body hit the floor and a stabbing pain shot through her entire body. Her halo felt cracked, her head felt like it might have been leaking some ink, her back hurt so much like something slashed her deeply… and she could barely feel her legs. 

Alice couldn’t even think to do anything else as she curled in on herself from the pain, letting out a loud scream as ink tears fell down her face. She did however slowly turn her head up and through blurry eyes she saw the demon making its way towards her with a low growl… a low growl that soon turned into a roar of anger as he seemed to be frozen in one spot. More specifically… she recognized where one of his legs seemed to be with the candles flickering around it.

A weak smile made it’s way onto her face as she knew… the circle worked and now the ritual was now in effect. With every ounce of strength she had in her body, she forced herself to whisper the words from the page, earning her louder roars of protest from the ink demon as the ritual seemed to be doing it’s job.

**“Please... Come… back to… me… Ben...dy…”** were the last words she whispered before her vision went dark… unable to see the results.

….

Cold that’s the first thing he felt when he opened his eyes. Confusion was the first thing on his mind when he took a good notice of the room he was in.

**_This… this isn’t where I was before…_ ** Bendy tried to remember just where he last was before his gaze fell on something that made everything around him seem nonexistent. 

Alice… laying in a pool of ink, her own ink, and not moving at all.

**_“ALICE!!”_ ** His voice sounded rough, and under used and… deeper? But he didn’t care about that as he tried to pull himself over to the fallen angel’s side. He ended up falling forward onto his face and almost feeling like he was just a puddle of ink for a bit before pulling himself back up in a blind panic as he used his arms to pull himself towards Alice.

He had stumbled a few more times, his arms feeling strangely weak but he finally got to her side. 

**_“Al...ice?”_ ** Bendy’s voice shook, he felt tears coming to his eyes… hell he felt his own form practically melting from his own fear at seeing the condition she was in. He reached out to her and that’s when he stopped and stared in fear at his own hand. 

His usual gloves were ripped up and at the end of ink dripping fingers… there were sharp claws that looked ready to tear through anything they touched. Bendy flinched back a bit, scared that he might hurt her more… but also from the loud banging noise behind him. Slowly turning his head he felt his eyes widen at the thing that seemed to be trapped within the circle.

It was tall, lanky, had what looked like one twisted leg but the face… that face despite being covered in ink looked so much like his own but much more sinister and angry… even worse was when the thing spoke.

**_“DAMN ANGEL.”_ **

It was distorted… but it was his voice. No… it wasn’t just that… 

**_It was also Joey’s Voice mixed in._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp this one was a bit longer and... well it's been a big scene on my mind for the longest time now. 
> 
> I'm so happy to finally get this one out and done with AHH!! 
> 
> On a side note I apologize if I may have accidentally killed anyone emotionally... I have a bad habit of that.
> 
> Any ways Next chapter's gonna be out within the week, and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!


	16. Present Day: The Wolf and Animator

Henry was happy that Boris was alive and well… but he was also concerned at the same time. Last he saw the wolf was when he was cut up and on that operating table… dead. Upside his idea of using the ink from the machine to bring him back worked at least.

The most concerning part however had to be the fact Boris didn’t even seem to think Henry was gone for as long as he actually was… like something had blocked out all memories of the past 30 years Henry was gone.

If anything though, the old animator was also just plain happy to see that Boris was just so happy to have him back.

**“Both Ben and Alice will be so happy to see you again as well I’m sure! Soon as we can find them of course!”** Boris exclaimed excitedly… not noticing the slight twitch of fear Henry had at the mention of Bendy… The twisted image of the thing that chased him coming to mind immediately along with the echoes of Sammy’s screams really didn’t help at all. Not to mention there was no telling what happened to Alice or if she was even alright.

“... Yeah… I’m sure they will…” Henry forced a small smile, he really didn’t want to ruin Boris’s mood at all with his own doubts. Though that didn’t stop Henry from seeing the wolf’s ears lower as he looked down at the old animator.

**“... Henry?”**

“Hm?”

**“Why didn’t you tell Ben you were going to be gone so long?”**

The sad look on the wolf’s face made his own heart hurt, especially from his own mistakes.

“... When you go to war… you never really know when you’re gonna come back bud…” Henry looked away… he didn’t dare use the word “If” in that sentence. He just… he didn’t want them to worry so much.

**“Oh…”** Boris looked down, thoughtful about it for a moment. The wolf soon had a soft smile on his muzzle as a thought came to mind.  **“At least you’re back now…”**

The sound of banging on the door snapped the two out of their moment, especially with the sound of growls on the other side. Boris looked scared and confused on it while Henry’s eyes widened… it sounded like there was more than just the monster Bendy trying to get in now. Henry almost froze up again but one look at how scared Boris seemed to be steeled his nerves and he grabbed the tall toon’s arm.

“We gotta move.”

Boris could only nod and quickly the two hurried away from the door.

As they left the area the door eventually cracked and ink started spreading into the room they once were.

The wolf and old animator ran down the hallway, only pausing for a moment when there were two different directions to take.

_ Shit, which way?  _ Henry thought, breathing heavily. Suddenly he felt Boris’s hand grab his own and start dragging him down the left hall way.

**“This way! I got an idea!”**

Seeing no reason to deny Boris or even take any longer to think it through from the sounds of the growing noises behind them Henry followed the tall toon as fast as he could.

The duo had turned down the hall quickly before finding a random door that was left ajar and hurried into it before Boris closed the door as quietly and quickly as possible. Once that was done both he and Henry took stock of the room and then moved a few boxes of unsold Bendy merchandise in front of the door, then waited. Henry took the time waiting to scope out any other doors in the room or even openings that could serve as a quick escape…

He nearly forgot to check for ink puddles already in the room… especially the large ones. So when a Searcher popped out and started quickly crawling over towards them almost everything seemed to go in slow motion for the old animator.

Boris had turned around and spotted the ink torso and looked horrified, at least two more pulled themselves out of the ink puddles, Henry had blindly reached for anything he could use as a weapon… and the first searcher was mere inches away from them.

When Henry’s hand had grabbed something he used all the force he could muster in his old bones to smash it down onto the first searcher before it could even put it’s claws on Boris. That something he used… was a Bendy cut out. Surprisingly enough it did it’s job in turning the Searcher back into formless ink but the head of the cut out had broken. Though that didn’t stop the man from using the rest of it to take the other two Searcher’s out as best he could.

It seemed like it took minutes for everything to happen… but really it only barely reached the two minute mark for it to end, and once it did Henry immediately went to checking over Boris to make sure the wolf was alright, dropping what was left of the cutout onto the ground. Aside from being scared and not knowing just what those things were, Boris seemed to be just fine… now if only Henry could find another exit from this room.

Just as Henry was thinking that both he and Boris froze at the sound of a few more of the Searchers outside the room… as well as “Bendy” from what Henry heard. Both held their breaths and kept their mouths shut, daring not to make any noise as the sounds outside increased… only for it to all fade away slowly as the room was overlooked. 

They both waited one, two, three heartbeats long until it was nothing but dead silence on the outside and both breathed out in relief.

Boris didn’t know at all what to think now… Hell he didn’t even know what was going on here anymore. Last thing he remembered before waking up was meeting with Joey and… and Bendy was screaming something… then…. Then nothing. Boris had no idea what happened after that or anything that followed it aside from him waking up, strapped to a table with an ink pipe practically blasting him with ink, wandering around the studio being confused on why everything looked so run down then finding Henry…

Boris needed answers.

**“What… What were those things?”** was the first question that made itself known. The wolf watched how the man breathed unevenly, still trying to catch as much of his breath as he could.

“Honestly… I don’t know… Been calling them Searchers though,” Henry admitted as he rubbed a hand through his hair.

**_Now that I really think about it though…_ ** Boris thought to himself, his pie cut eyes looking Henry up and down… taking in the greying hair and the wrinkles that were not there from the last time Boris remembered seeing him… nor did he remember seeing the man having a few scars either.  **_Henry looks… so different now… Does… Does a war really change someone this much?_ **

Then something else caught Boris’s eye… just behind Henry, Boris saw a puddle of ink pulling all the pieces of the broken Bendy cutout back together and into it’s original place. His eyes widened at what he was seeing… even as the puddle seemed to stop half way in what it was doing and seemed to be frozen at the wolf’s gaze.

“... Boris? What’s wrong bud?” Henry asked, growing concerned when he saw the tall toon practically frozen in place.

**“Henry…”** Boris started out slowly, not taking his eyes off the seemingly sentient ink puddle. He honestly didn’t know what else to say… What the hell were you supposed to say when you see something as strange as an ink puddle putting a cardboard cutout back together at a rapid pace only to stop at the halfway point of the head and seemed to stare back at you? 

So he decided to say nothing… but that didn’t stop him from pointing at it. Henry turned to look and his own eyes widened as he knew for a fact he broke the damn thing… and that there wasn’t an ink puddle there last he checked.

Instinctively Henry got in front of Boris, trying to shield the toon away from the… thing as it seemed to just sit there.

Though after a moment of nothing happening Henry and Boris were both startled as they watched it finish reassembling the cutout, good as new and faces it towards them before fading into it. Ink shifted on the Bendy cutout eternally smiling face… making it seem more like a sheepish, nervous smile. Some of the ink dripped onto the floor, and looking down at it both Henry and Boris watched as it formed two words.

**_Hiya guys._ **

**_“Bendy?!”_ ** Both Boris and Henry questioned at the same time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *face planting onto the computer* I swear to god I need to stop writing things at three in the morning... then again that's probably become a normal thing by this point seeing as I work afternoon and closing shifts for the majority of the week...
> 
> Anyways Hope y'all enjoy the newest chapter! I'll try to write fluff for the next one... if not then we're gonna dive right back into angst!


	17. Story Time with the Devil

Bendy had trouble sleeping most nights. It had to have been from the fact that most nights he was left alone. Though on the other nights, he was able to have the most peaceful sleep and it had to have been from the fact he had Henry there to thank for that. 

Henry relieved the loneliness whenever he could get time to actually spend the night at the studio. He loved those nights so much, even more so when Henry would tell him stories. 

It had just started off with Bendy asking Henry about what the outside of the studio was like. It was such a simple question that lead to many stories involving a few things that Henry would describe. Personal stories and experiences played out almost like one of the animated shows and Bendy was hooked and wanted to hear as many as he could.

When Henry ran out of stories he would bring books and the two would find a comfortable sitting position together and read them. Bendy absolutely loved to hear Henry reading them before going to sleep, and would sometimes find himself almost lost in some of those worlds. 

But on the nights Henry couldn’t spend Bendy found the loneliness suffocating and sleep much harder to come by… But when Boris was brought to life Bendy couldn’t have been happier.

It’s only been a week since the wolf came to life and Bendy was still excited to have Boris around… especially since it was gonna be another “Story” night with Henry. 

**“I tell ya Boris you’ll love them! Henry knows lot’s of good stories!”** Bendy exclaimed as he was setting up the usual spot for later that night, it was still an hour till the studio shut down for the night but Bendy wanted everything to be perfect.

**“There’s one ‘bout when he and Joey were kids pulling a prank and everything! OH then my favorite was when they started a street wide snowball fight with all the kids,”** Bendy babbled on, listing off a few stories he remembered Henry telling about his childhood, especially the ones with Joey in them. 

Boris had no clue what Bendy was talking about… but he had to admit Bendy’s enthusiasm was infectious and it was much more welcoming than the nervousness he had been feeling since he came to life. The wolf couldn’t help but smile at how passionately Bendy tried to explain a few of the stories without giving to much away. Not to mention Boris could feel his own excitement growing.

**_I dunno what a snowball fight is, but it sounds like fun!_ ** Boris thought, letting Bendy keep yammering on.

“Hey now, save some of the stories for me little buddy.” Henry’s voice caught both toon’s attention. Henry was leaning against the door frame to the room and smiling a little while the little demon just got a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

**“Sorry I can’t help it, I’m so excited!”**

“I can believe it,” Henry chuckled as he fully entered the room, Boris avoided eye contact with the man and shifted a little uncomfortably. The wolf still wasn’t entirely used to humans yet, and even though Bendy kept assuring him about everything especially Henry… Boris couldn’t help but still feel nervous being around them. 

**_It’s gonna be a long night…_ ** Boris thought to himself.

Hour’s passed and soon it was apparently storytime as Bendy curled up into the prepared Infirmary bed and patted it with pure excitement. Henry simply chuckled and pulled himself into the bed, adjusting a little so Bendy could get into his usual “Comfort spot” right at Henry’s side and so the toon demon’s head would rest on his chest when he did fall asleep from the story telling.

Boris saw at least three books set down on the bed and how Bendy was looking over at him almost expectantly. Boris shifted nervously before he just grabbed a chair and sat at a comfortable distance from the animator and demon. Bendy frowned at this while Henry just patted the demon’s head.

“It’s alright little buddy, Boris is still getting used to everything.” Henry smiled then carefully looked over to the wolf. “Would you like to choose the story for the night?”

**“Ah… um… I-I… I don’t really know what stories ya got sir…”** Boris answered sheepishly, rubbing at one of his arms with his answer. Henry simply shrugged at this and pointed to the three books.

“I got Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz and Grimm's Fairy Tales for the books. I’m sure Bendy told you a few real life ones I have,” Henry offered, giving the wolf a patient smile, even as Bendy practically jumped in his spot.

**“I wanna hear more about Grimm’s Fairy Tales!”** Bendy grinned, looking up to Henry with his most excited look ever. Boris glanced between the two for a bit before offering a sheepish grin.

**“That sounds great actually.”** Boris didn’t know much about these fairy tales but if Bendy liked them then he had to assume they were good.

A few stories later Bendy was sleeping soundly, curled up next to Henry who just smiled with Fatherly pride at the demon. Boris was still awake, though barely.

“I’m glad you know.” 

Boris perked up at Henry’s voice.

**“About what?”**

“That you decided to give this a chance, even though Bendy probably pushed you.” Henry explained quietly, adjusting a little so Bendy wouldn’t wake up but was still comfortable and asleep. 

“I know you’re still getting used to how different everything is now and aren’t as quick to adapt as Bendy was… but at least you’re giving this a chance.”

Boris’s eyes widened for a moment before giving off a small smile in return.

**“Yeah… guess I am…”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This would have come out sooner... but seeing as I had a car accident and had to be in the hospital for a few days I couldn't finish it sooner. 
> 
> But hey at least I lived and everything else is just fine (aside from my leg that is) and I get more time to myself now!


	18. The Restless Demon

Bendy was relieved when he found a room that wasn’t covered in ink yet. It had a small drip in the corner and seemed like it was packed up with Bacon Soup on the shelves and there was at least one table with old papers on top of it as well as a piece of broken wood and… one of his cardboard cut outs in the corner.

Even though they were made to look like him it was still unsettling to the demon to just look at the forever smiling faces that they had.

**_Even I don’t smile that much,_ ** Bendy thought with a shudder as he carefully laid Alice down onto the ground near the small ink leak. After all a nice steady supply of it would help with… with the injury she had. He took extra care not to accidentally hurt her anymore with the… claws that now made up his fingers as he set her down.

Alice’s eyes weren’t cartoon x’s so that meant she wasn’t dead… just unconscious but even then barely with her shallow breathing. As soon as the constant dripping ink made contact with her wounded side she did flinch a little in her sleep but soon relaxed as it started to do it’s job. It was gonna be slow from the small amount… but it was much better than just dropping her into one of the large pools of the stuff.

Bendy sighed in relief when Alice finally relaxed under the constant dripping ink and seemed to just be sleeping now.

**_“... Sleep well… Alice…”_ ** Bendy whispered, his voice still sounding and feeling strained with each word he spoke. He sat himself down in a corner that allowed him to see the majority of the room… but more importantly the door.

He didn’t want any of those… things, those ink Torso and more importantly… that other “him” coming into the room. Bendy shuddered at remembering the other “him” and his form began to drip ink into the ground making a bit of a puddle around him as he shook.

Everything that happened was really getting to him. Hell he didn’t even know the extent of how different he looks now… all he knows is that his form is still pretty unstable with all the ink that drips off of him but… at the same time he’s stable to retain a solid enough form? He still wasn’t sure to the extent of it nor did he really want to test it all out. Another thing was that when he was able to… well “Stand up” he felt so much taller than he normally was. That was one positive he could think of, after all he always wanted to be taller… plus he was able to carry Alice easier that way.

However despite all that… Bendy was kinda scared to even see the extent of what he looked like now. If that “Other Him” was anything to go by… he certainly didn’t look like the friendly little demon he was supposed to be.

**_I… I still don’t get what happened… Last I remember was trying to save Alice from those… monsters… pain and… and then feeling like I was knocked out._ ** Bendy tried to piece together what happened to lead to this point… but everything turned up as a blank between when he felt like he was knocked out to when he woke up in that room.

**_“DAMN ANGEL… RUINING WHAT I WORKED SO HARD FOR…”_ **

Those words that the “Other Him” had said echoed in Bendy’s mind, and the fact that it’s voice was a mix of his own and Joey’s… it really didn’t help Bendy out there…. Just like the look from his own cardboard cutout just… sitting there and staring.

**_“Stop staring… would ya?”_ ** He muttered, sending a glare to the eternally smiling cutout as if it was a living being like he was. There were a few moment of silence before Bendy sighed and got up… and with an annoyed look he smeared some of his own dripping ink over the face of the cutout, blacking out the stare and covering a good chunk of the white face.

Soon after that Bendy found himself yawning softly. He almost went right over to Alice, having the habit of falling asleep better by snuggling up to someone… but he stopped when he saw her wound was still healing. He let out a soft whine at the fact he wouldn’t be able to snuggle… but he would make due to let the angel heal.

He went back to his corner and tried to get himself comfortable… better said than done really. Eventually when he relaxed enough and closed his own eyes… he soon realized he wasn’t exactly asleep yet as he seemed to still see the room.

**_But… I just closed my eyes? What the heck?_ ** Glancing around for a moment his gaze fell on two things that didn’t make sense with everything he saw before he settled down… one was that Alice and the leak she was under seemed to be on the other side of the room… and the fact he seemed to be staring at a large inky mass in the corner in front of him instead of the cardboard cut out.

Bendy jolted awake and soon found everything back to normal from his original point of view… except the ink that once covered the face of the cut out seemed to have dripped all the way down from the face and back to the ground.

**_What the…_ ** Bendy glanced back and forth from the small ink puddle to the cut out for a bit… before looking down to himself as a stark realization set in.

**_I was looking through the cutout’s eyes!_ ** Under normal circumstances Bendy would have jumped up in glee at all the possibilities he could have for pranks with that… but given the situation he was a little more disturbed and freaked out… but a spark of curiosity made itself known as he cautiously laid back down and closed his eyes once more.

Outside of his own vision the small ink puddle seemed to react and pull itself back up to the cutout’s head and seemed to dissolve into it once again… and Bendy was able to see out of it once again. Unintentionally some of the ink that was being used to control the Bendy cutout seemed to shift itself to change the expression from the stotic grin to almost a disturbed grimace at how weird this was. Slowly though it seemed to bleed out into curiosity… What else could he do with this?

Well aside from get a better look at how he is now… but now that he really thinks about it… 

Bendy’s eyes reopened and, despite still feeling a little tired he pushed himself up and over to the door. The demon paused and glanced back to the sleeping angel for a moment as well as back to the cut out that once again had the small puddle of ink around it, before settling his gaze back onto the injured angel.

**_“I’ll be back… rest well m’kay?”_ ** Bendy smiled as softly as he could before cautiously leaving the room in search of a few more of his cardboard cutouts.

Back in the room shortly after the ink demon left Alice’s eyes slowly opened before they closed again as she hissed in pain. One of her hands slowly made it’s way to her side and gently grazed over it, still feeling the stinging pain as well as the slow drip of ink from above hitting it and causing the pain to at least lessen.

She relaxed into it for a bit before slowly opening her eyes once again and took in the room she was in… it… it wasn’t the room with the circle she drew, in fact she didn’t even  _ know  _ what room she was in.

**_Where am I? How did…!!_ ** As the second question entered her mind her eyes widened and she almost forced herself to sit up quickly, but ended up falling and screaming out in pain. She took a few deep breaths between her scream of pain before opening one of her eyes and noticed on the door to the room there was some dripping ink in the shape of a large clawed hand.

**“B-B… Ben… dy?”** she breathed out in pain, one hand reaching out for the door almost trying to call the demon back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOT NEW CHAPTER!! Haha I got the idea in between the naps I took from the pain medication I gotta take, but hey I'm glad I finished it up how I wanted it to be in between all that. 
> 
> Also thanks everyone for being concerned about my well being, I had an appointment today and they said I'm gonna be fine so far, just gotta avoid putting pressure on my leg for a while. 
> 
> Ah anyways enough about me, I just hope y'all enjoy the new chapter! Next one's probably gonna be out by sometime next week if I can keep up with inspiration. If not it's gonna be a little while then.


	19. Injured Angel, Helpful Demon

Alice sat underneath the ink drip with her eyes closed and small amounts of inky tears threatened to drip from her eyes. She was just beginning to get feeling in her legs again and the wound seemed to be taking it’s time to close up.

**_Must be from the broken spine…_ ** Alice thought to herself with a wince as she began to slowly move one of her legs. She hated that her legs were rendered useless from the claws that had hit her back… but it was better than losing anything else that would have stopped the reversal ritual… if she even finished it right that is…

**“Bendy…”** her eyes opened as some of her tears began to fall. Her hand tightened into a fist as the pain continued to dull. Her halo still felt like it had a crack in it but at least her head didn’t feel much pain anymore… and she could move her legs again. The wound on her back felt like it was slowly starting to close up… but her worry started to outweigh her concern for healing at the moment… especially since she didn’t want to be under the damned machine’s ink any longer then she had to.

She was glad to see that the jacket she wore was still on her… albeit ripped on the back now, and that her bag was also still in tack and with her… so she had at least an idea of what to do.

She took the jacket off, hissing in pain as it was also pulled from her wound, letting the outside ink drip better onto it and almost speeding the whole healing process up a bit more. Quickly she ripped at the torn part of the jacket and made a few long strips before wrapping the largest one around her middle and across the worst injury, stopping the dripping ink from hitting the wound anymore. She then took one of the smaller strips as well as grabbing her own halo and then wrapped the cracked part up.

Soon after she pushed herself up onto her feet. She stumbled a bit and hissed a little from the pain in her back, but soon found her balance and pushed herself to the door, determined to find Bendy…. Only to be stopped by the Bendy cutout in the room seeming to pull itself from it’s original spot leaning against the wall and getting right in front of her. 

The angel jumped back in surprise, and almost lost her balance from the sudden movement of the previously inanimate object. She saw that there was ink on it’s face, changing the expression from the mischievous smile to one more of worry… and beyond the cutout on the door she saw the ink there seemed to be almost drawn to the cutout as it dripped all the way down from it’s perch to surround the feet of the cardboard image of her friend and form… words?

**Alice no! Sit down! Rest!**

The angel stared down at the writing for a bit… it looked exactly like Bendy’s handwriting. Slowly her gaze went back up to the face of the cut out, her eyes widening slowly as it suddenly settled in just what was going on.

**“Bendy?”**

**_Oh god… did… did I mess up somewhere?_ ** The worried thoughts started to cross her mind.

Meanwhile elsewhere before Alice even made her attempts to get up, Bendy had practically doodled on at least three of his cardboard cutout’s with his ink… after all if he and Alice were gonna try to avoid those ink torsos and… the other him, they would need a good head’s up. Plus he could also test how many he could see through at a time! 

**_This is gonna be weird… but I swear if I can get the hang of it this is gonna be the most amazing thing ever!_ ** Bendy felt his usual smile returning to his face as he put a little bit more ink onto a fourth cutout, using it all to almost make a bushy mustache on it that made him chuckle a little. The thoughts of all the pranks he could get away with popped up in his mind almost out of habit.

**_Heck I could also spy on Henry when he’s…_ ** Bendy’s smile fell as he caught himself falling back onto old times… his form began to drip a little more as he shook… remembering that Henry no longer worked there. Even though he accepted it long ago, it still hurt that the animator… the one human who thought of him more as his own person rather than a cartoon he made… who he thought of being the closest thing to a dad... wasn’t coming back.

**_“Henry….”_ ** Bendy kneeled down and almost curled himself into a tight little ball at thinking about the old animator. It really didn’t help at all since at one point he was angry at the man for leaving… till he found out what being drafted meant… right down to the possibility of death. 

It was hard to tell if he was crying with all the dripping ink on his body and face… but one thing was certain his eyes closed once again… and a little while after keeping them closed for a while, he found his vision peering through into five different directions. The demon got disoriented quickly and a massive headache, his upset mood replaced with a major headache… till it all seemed to just be pulled into one cutout… the one where Alice was.

While he was glad to no longer be disoriented, or really feeling like crying, he was a little sad that his prank ideas all went out the window… well until he saw his fellow toon hobbling her way from her original place under the ink drip.

**_ALICE NO! You need to sit down and Rest!_ ** Panic went through the ink demon and without completely realizing he was doing it, he made his own cutout move to block alice from getting to the door… and some of the ink that he left in that room moved to almost speak to the angel. 

When he did realize what he did, it was when Alice had said his name. In all honesty he wasn’t expecting to do any of that… or even completely sure how he did that. He was a little bit in awe… till through the same cutout’s eyes he saw Alice’s expression turn into one of upset and… oh no she was crying.

**_No, no,no! No tears! I’ll be there soon just… please wait Alice!_ ** Bendy thought frantically, his normal eyes opened, returning his vision back to normal and he began to rush back to the Angel’s side as fast as he could… not noticing a large figure with a few of the ink monsters surrounding it watching him as he ran back to Alice’s location.

Alice herself couldn’t help but think that she messed up the circle and requirements to bring Bendy back to normal. The moment she felt the tears return to her eyes she was surprised to see the ink on the Bendy cutout’s face change from a worried expression to a more panicked one. The writing on the ground also changed immediately.

**No tears! Be there soon… Please wait Alice!**

**“Be there… soon?”** Alice muttered out loud confusion going through her now… what did that even mean? As she was about to ask him about it an excess about of ink fell from the Bendy cutout, dropping into a puddle below and making the expression once again the standard one that all the cardboard cutouts had.

**“Bendy?!”** Worry spread through the angel at seeing the ink drop from the cutout… it didn’t help when she heard something rushing straight for the room. Her heart pounded and instantly she found herself picking up some of the cans of bacon soup. Once the door opened she immediately threw at least one of them and hit what entered dead on the head.

Bendy stumbled back with a pained yelp as the can hit his head. Despite his now more… monstrous look, the fact that he reacted like that caused Alice to lower the second soup can. After all… when she would hit other things with anything they wouldn’t scream like that.

**_“What was that for?!”_ ** Bendy shouted as much as his raspy voice would allow before he coughed a little, hurt clearly in his voice and instantly making Alice drop the cans she gathered. She covered her mouth with her hands as she realized her mistake.

**“Oh my god Bendy. I’m so sorry!”** The angel ran over as fast as her injury would allow. When she got up to him, she quickly noticed the height difference as he now seemed to be taller than Boris’s height by at least a head if he was standing up straight… and how his horns were longer and more jagged looking atop his head. His face however, despite the ink that dripped down into it, was still the same one she remembered… with at least slightly sharper teeth now.

Her hand gently touched where the can had hit, earning her a small flinch of pain from the demon.

**“I’m sorry….”** She softly spoke. The angel knew he was at least himself again…. But she hadn’t been able to completely fix him back to normal like she had hoped. Bendy stared at her for a bit before relaxing into her touch a little bit… till they both heard a low deep growl not to far away along with the groans of the ink torsos.

Alice’s eyes widened as she knew what it was that had come for them before she even saw them… Bendy on the other hand flinched in fear as he turned his gaze to look back with wide scared eyes, even as Alice grabbed his arm and practically started dragging him behind her to run.

Behind them was a large monstrous looking being, oozing ink like he was but… it made this one look more predatory… more like a proper wolf. One with pure white eyes instead of the normal toon ones and stood on large clawed hands. Drips of ink leaked out of the growling jaws as the smaller ink monsters around it began charging ahead of it as it continued to growl low.

**_“B-Boris?”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one was in my head for a little while and I'm like "Shit this is another direct continuation now.... Well this is still gonna be fun~!"
> 
> So there we go, this was fun to write and the next one I might just either go to Present time or Fluff... or even continue it again if inspiration strikes right.


	20. Present Time: Family Reunion

Henry’s mind felt like it was going to shut down soon… He had so many questions at the moment and at the same time he knew he wouldn’t be able to get them all now… especially since Bendy… the REAL Bendy… was a cardboard cutout that seemed to have limited writing ink. Or as the demon had put it:

**Not enough ink.**

**Can’t write much.**

Those were both on two separate times with the same ink. The old animator also knew that he wouldn’t be able to get much out of Boris, since the wolf was just as confused as he was on the situation… not only that but he seemed to not remember much from whatever happened these past thirty years.

“Bendy… is there anyway we can get you more ink to... talk?” Henry asked carefully, he wanted to find out just what the hell Joey was doing… but he… he also wanted to talk with the toon demon. The old animator watched as the ink that controlled the cutout moved on the face, making it more expressive then it was supposed to be, especially with the thoughtful look it now had…. And seemed to hold for quite a while.

**“B… Ben?”** Boris questioned, still a little unsure and weirded out about the whole “My best friend is a cardboard cutout now” situation…. Especially now since Bendy wasn’t saying, or rather, writing anything at the moment. Even Henry was getting concerned with how long Bendy seemed to be frozen like that for.

Before Henry could speak up the ink on the cardboard finally shifted, almost making the face look determined and the writing below changed.

**Follow me**

That’s all it said before the ink dropped out of the cutout, startling both animator and wolf as it quickly moved towards the door and only stopped to wait for the two to move their barricade out of the way. Henry seemed to get that idea first as, despite his old tired body slowing him down a little, began to take it down to follow the ink puddle.

**“H-Henry wait…”** Boris spoke up, placing a gentle hand on Henry’s shoulder. The old animator looked up at the wolf.  **“Let me do it… You should save your energy.”**

“Boris I-” Henry got cut off by Boris gently pushing him out of the way and began to work a bit quicker than the old man had been. The minute it was down the ink that was once on the Bendy cutout slipped under the door, making both the wolf and animator have to throw the door open in order to follow… and also catch up since it was moving kinda quick down the hall they had just come though.

Both Henry and Boris noticed how much ink stained the halls now from that… thing that chased them before… it also made tracking the moving Ink puddle harder to do and also more tense for Henry, seeing as he had nothing to protect them with if Searchers popped out for them.

Bendy’s ink made a quick turn, disappearing from view and worrying the duo for a moment… before another Bendy cutout popped out from the side almost as if it was waving for them to keep up.

The whole chase down the halls to a less ink filled area continued like that… until Bendy’s ink disappeared down a hallway and neither Henry or Boris could find it… and there was no cutout to tell them otherwise.

“Bendy? Where’d ya go?” Henry called out, looking around but also feeling his panic and fear of being exposed slowly raising up.

**“Ben? Please… Where are you?”** Boris’s ears lowered as worry started to take over… soon after they both heard footsteps heading their way. Both tensed up a bit but Boris noted rather quickly… these footsteps didn’t sound like they were trying to walk through ink pools like the things that chased them did.

Henry however stepped in front of Boris just to be safe. Even though he was unarmed he was fully prepared to use his own fists to protect the tall toon and himself if needed… his tense standing and raised fists lowered as soon as he saw who was coming, while Boris took in a surprised gasp as his expression went up to excited and happy at who it was.

“Alice…” 

The toon angel stopped a little ways from the duo, her own wide eyes wondering over them… especially over Henry. The animator took note of the fabric that was wrapped around a few areas on her that were stained with ink, the mismatched fabrics that were sewn together to make an almost empty looking side bag that rested across her body… and the fire ax that was held in her right hand.

**“Alice!”** Boris called out with pure joy at seeing his fellow toon all right, not noticing much of the torn up fabric wrapped around a few areas on her almost like they were bandages.

**“... You’re really here….”** Alice started quietly, her eyes nearly watering at seeing them both before she dropped the ax down and ran forward. Her arms wrapped around the old animator quickly once she reached him, and from her speed she nearly knocked the old man down. The angel’s body shook slightly as she nearly buried her face into Henry’s shirt as a tear or two managed to leak out of her eyes.

**“You’re here… and you’re okay!”** Alice cried a little louder, enjoying the warmth given to her by the human, who had slowly wrapped his own arms around the toon angel… feeling really bad for her as he got a better look at a lot of the damage she had suffered.

Boris, now that the angel was closer, had also noticed now and was immediately concerned himself.

**“Are… Are you okay though?”** Boris asked, reaching out to lay a comforting hand on his fellow toon… who flinched from his touch, making both Henry and Boris worry more from that reaction…. But mostly made Boris feel really bad.  **“S-Sorry… D-Did… Did I do something wrong Alice?”**

The angel glanced up to the wolf, guilt immediately filled those pie cut eyes as she saw how upset she had made the wolf.

**“No… no I’m… I’m the one who… who should be sorry…”** Her voice was quiet, Henry could pick up small bits of pain in her voice and that’s all he needed to just hug her closer as if that could take it all away. 

Even though she enjoyed the contact of a real living human once again… one who wasn’t corrupted by the ink or made into an ink abomination… Alice soon pushed Henry off of her very carefully.

**“... You need to leave Henry…”** She sounded so tired… so defeated.

**“B-But he just got here Al… and Ben!”** Boris remembered, they lost track of Bendy’s ink just before running into her.  **“We still gotta find him!”**

Alice looked up at Boris with sad eyes for a moment before looking away, muttering something under her breath that neither could pick up...Henry could tell just from that, right down to the small, nearly unnoticeable dark lines under her eyes… just how worn down she really was. The old animator placed a comforting hand on Alice’s shoulder.

“We should focus on finding a place to rest first. After we can try to find Bendy, then a way out....I also want to know what happened here Alice…”

Alice was quiet for a bit… she knew she wouldn’t be able to leave this place… neither her nor her fellow toons… but she knew just from looking at Henry he wasn’t as young as he used to be. He needed some rest.

**“... Through that door over there and down the left hall there’s a room they can’t enter… we can rest there,”** Alice pointed and a little after she got out of Henry’s grip to retrieve the axe. As soon as it was in the palm of her hand, the angel paused as she looked down at it. With a small sigh she motioned both Henry and Boris over to her… and handed Henry the axe.

Henry was surprised to say the least… before he could object to her losing what he thought was her only means of defence she interrupted him.

**“You’re gonna need that…”** The angel then opened her bag up and pulled out a wrench and a hammer and held them out for Boris.  **“Take your pick… You never know when you’re gonna get attacked down here.”**

Boris’s ears and face fell at the thought of having to actually hurt something… it just… didn’t sit right with him.

**“A-are… are ya sure Al?”**

Alice sighed at the wolf’s hesitation… but understood it and just shoved the wrench into his hands.

**“Better safe than sorry Boris…”**

**_We don’t want what happened last time to happen again after all…._ ** Alice thought as she slipped her hand out of the wolf’s, leaving the wrench behind in it and began to lead the way. Boris looked down at the tool… and to him it almost felt heavier than it should have been… especially since he saw some dried ink stains on it.

Henry placed a comforting hand on Boris, having noticed the upset look on the tall toon’s face… and understanding how he felt about holding a weapon in his hands.

The small group passed through the door and made their way to their destination. Henry took note of how Alice weaved in between a lot of the ink and avoided the larger puddles like the plague… and how she tried to keep Boris from even going into the larger puddles as well. 

_ Something bad must have happened with the ink… or there’s… something else….  _ Henry thought, knowing one other question aside from a few of the main one’s he would be asking.

Once they got into the room, the angel closed the door behind them and Henry took in the entire room with a surprised look. It was the old storyboard room, all the papers were surprisingly organized and set away carefully instead of being scattered about like everywhere else he had seen. There seemed to be a very small amount of ink scattered about in the room and even a few, new drawings over on one of the desks… and a pentagram with symbols he hadn’t seen anywhere else but in the first room he blacked out in on the door.

**“Um… I uh… don’t mean to sound rude… or impatient but… when can we look for Bendy?”** Boris asked glancing towards the door with a lot of hesitation and his own nerves acting up at seeing the symbol on it… both him and Henry not noticing the ink all pulling itself together and over… right behind Henry. Alice however noticed and rolled her eyes… but kept her lips sealed about it.

“I wanna find Bendy as well bud…” Henry said and as much as he did want to keep going, his old body wasn’t agreeing with him at all as he was slowly feeling the aches and pains growing once again through his body. “But I’m not as young as I used to be…”

He hated to admit it… but the old animator really needed to take a seat. He ended up stepping over the ink puddle that was forming, not really intentionally and made way to the closest chair, with the ink following behind a little franticly now. 

Alice just held up one of her hands and slowly began to count down from her three main fingers, timing something. Boris was confused at this… before he noticed the large ink puddle that had formed behind Henry, who was resting in the chair with the axe set down next to the table, and that something began to rise and form out of it.

**“H-Henry!”** Boris exclaimed, worry growing and it was at the same time Alice reached her last finger and then slowly pointed it to the scene with Henry as she waited for the coup de grace of what she knew was coming. 

The animator froze and slowly turned and with wide eyes saw a much larger, more demonic looking Bendy that seemed to be a whole head taller than Boris standing over him. The demon seemed to growl low as his ink covered face got right in Henry’s, making the old Animator almost scramble onto the drawing desk as a way to put some distance between himself and the tall demon.

Boris nearly ran over in that moment but Alice stopped the wolf and was a little more calm about the situation then both the wolf and poor Henry.

**“Give it a moment Boris…”**

Henry nearly began to reach for the axe for protection but stopped when he saw the once almost threatening look shifted into a more mischievous smile and some of the ink on the white face seemed to recede with that smile.

**_“Spooked ya Henry~”_ ** Bendy grinned and carefully booped Henry’s nose, surprising him a little and letting him process things.

“.... Bendy?” Henry knew it was him… who else would get a kick out of playfully “spooking” him? But… the voice was deeper than the Bendy he remembered…. And he just almost needed the confirmation. Bendy’s grin almost seemed to get a little bigger, showing off the fangs a little more, but it wasn’t threatening at all… not when he lowered down a bit and wrapped his arms around the old animator in a large, goopy hug while nuzzling his head up against the old man.

It wasn’t the same from back then… but it was familiar enough for Henry that he relaxed and brought his own arms around the dripping ink demon.

Alice and Boris just watched the scene with different reactions. Alice smiled softly, happy for them… but she also felt sad that Henry would have to leave soon… she wouldn’t let another person she cared about fall to corruption here… not if she could do anything about it. 

Boris on the other hand was getting a little overwhelmed… first off he was so happy to see that Bendy was happy…. But he was also confused, a little scared and so very worried all at the same time. He had no idea what was going on and he was majorly feeling like he was going to pass out from being overloaded with so many questions and confused feelings.

**_“I missed you Henry…”_ ** Bendy softly spoke as he hugged the old animator.

“I missed you to little buddy… Well, you’re not so little anymore now,” Henry chuckled softly at the end and he tried to hold back his tears… after all he just got reunited with all his kids. He was just getting a little overwhelmed… but he didn’t want to ruin it with tears.

Those could wait for after he got answers… and found a way to get them all out of here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well the gang's all together again... and Papa Henry get's to be with all his children again! Yaaay~! Also this is the longest chapter yet! Holy crap.... Oh well expect a new chapter in a few days everyone, cuz I got a new idea for one and it's gonna be coming!  
> Till then hope you enjoyed the longest chapter ever!


	21. Animated Comfort

Bendy didn’t understand how Alice got along so well with her voice actor… nor did he understand Boris’s reluctance to interact with others aside from Joey and Henry. Bendy himself found his voice actor Nick to be annoying whenever he was around and would often leave a prank for him whenever he would come in. Though then again the voice actor hasn’t been into the studio for months and had been getting sick a lot.

Nonetheless Bendy still didn’t have that high of an opinion on voice actors… and it only got worse when he was forced to take over for the sick actor. Bendy hated that he had to take over and do lines for the show… repeating them over and over until he got them right for the cartoon. It got old real fast, which was why Bendy took to sneaking off to try and spend more time with Henry. That always made him feel better, even if Henry would coax him back… at least the animator would come with and make the recording sessions fun.

**“Henry…. When’s Nick coming back?”** Bendy asked one day while watching the animator draw Keyframes for a new short. The toon demon was getting sick of having to fill in for the voice actor for so long and wanted to know when he could go back to his normal routine around the studio. Henry paused his earlier smile had fallen and a sad look crossed his face.

“... He’s… He’s not coming back little buddy…” Henry muttered, slightly shaken. Bendy blinked and looked up at him in confusion.

**“You mean he quit?”** Bendy questioned, he knew a few employees that quit around the time he came to be and even the months following it… but that didn’t explain why Henry looked so upset.

“In… in a way…” 

**“Henry? What’s wrong?”** The toon demon pushed his chair closer to the animator and stood on it when he saw how upset Henry seemed to be.  **“If it’s about Nick leaving can’t ya still see him at them family reunions ya talk about?”**

“It’s…. It’s not like that Bendy… Nick… passed away a month ago…”

You could hear a pin drop from how silent it went at the last words that left Henry’s mouth. Bendy was trying to process it himself… he knew what passed away meant… that was explained to him when one of the animator’s didn’t come in for a while and when everyone was upset. Apparently he had gotten into an accident that cost him his life.

This had to be worse though… Even though Bendy didn’t like the guy very much… he was still fun to prank and Bendy could at least tolerate him… at least for Henry. The demon was more concerned for the animator though… that was his youngest brother after all.

The small toon didn’t even waste any time in hugging the animator, just like Henry did for him so many times in the past.

**“... I’m sorry Henry…”** That’s all he could think to say… but it seemed to work as Henry wrapped one arm around the demon, pulling him closer for a full on hug.

“It’s alright bud…” Henry quietly spoke, Bendy could feel the human shaking a little bit, holding back some tears. The toon didn’t like seeing the animator upset… he hated it more when the human would hold it back in an attempt to make sure he wouldn’t get upset.

**_He must be where Alice get’s it from…_ ** Bendy thought to himself, a small smile coming onto his face with that thought but it soon fell down as he tried to think of something that would make the animator happy again. His pie cut eyes slowly drifted over to the keyframe that Henry had been working on and an idea came to mind… though he would need some help in order for it to work.

The next day when Henry came into work he saw Bendy drawing something on his desk. When he got closer Bendy tried to hide it and looked up at him with a big smile before the rest of the day went normal.

The day after that Henry found the three living toons all together around his desk, whispering amongst themselves and the sound of pencil’s moving. All three of them were working on something and from what he overheard… he couldn’t help but smile a little at the thought.

Henry played oblivious to their little plan for almost two months until all three came up to him one day and practically dragged him to the closest projector. Bendy and Boris seemed to be the most excited as they started it up and Alice sat next to Henry with a small smile.

As soon as their little project began to play, Bendy practically jumped onto Henry’s lap to watch while Boris took up another seat on the other side of the animator. The two male toons practically bouncing in excitement as the screen went onto the small animation that they had made. 

It wasn’t as smooth or completely on model as one of the proper animations that the studio usually made and Henry could see some of the rough lines shining through… along with the fact that they didn’t have a full background, but that it wasn’t bad for beginners work.

It began with a cartoon version of Henry, sitting at his desk looking upset. It soon started to spiral into quick cartoon hilarity when Bendy came onto the screen and dragged the toon animator into the “paper” and started leading him through a cartoon adventure just to cheer him up. Boris and Alice joined in, Alice trying to do damage control with all the gags and Boris joining in on a few more less dangerous looking gags.

It didn’t make too much sense, there wasn’t many in between shots to tie some of the scenes together and some weren’t animated that well but Henry couldn’t help but laugh as he watched it. When he first started to laugh the three toons couldn’t help but smile between each other and feel accomplished with their work. Hell some other animators paused to watch their work and even seemed to enjoy the weird idea that the toons had come up with.

When the short ended Henry pulled the three toons in for a group hug.

“You guys did a great job,” Henry smiled, making all three toons beam. It even got a little better when another one of the animators that joined them asked the trio if they could make a short like the one they did, or even refine it a little more. Bendy practically started chatting up a storm with them about it and seemed to be excited, Boris was a little more bashful and embarrassed with all the attention while Alice found a moment to lean over to Henry.

**“Thanks for not ruining the surprise.”**

Henry blinked at her words but smiled a little at it still.

“Caught me eavesdropping huh?” Henry chuckled quietly.

**“Not like we were any better at hiding it,”** Alice chuckled herself.  **“Kept trying to tell Bendy we shouldn’t use your desk.”**

“I think it’s a comfort zone for him honestly… but really, thanks guys. You did amazing work.”

**“Tell that to Bendy. It was his idea after all,”** Alice smiled softly before going over to her fellow toons, mostly to help keep Boris from getting to overwhelmed from the group and also to talk to Susie about their work a bit more.

Henry smiled fondly as he watched the little demon… but when his eyes caught sight of a certain someone watching everything from a door way the animator frowned and sent a glare in their direction. 

Joey Drew took the glare in stride and just smirked a little before leaving to go back to his office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter when Henry used to work there... and also when Henry and Joey's fights started to act up a little more. BUT HEY look at the fluff! 
> 
> (side note and personal update for those who are concerned: My leg's getting better, I've been healing pretty well and been getting a little more mobile every day! Just four more weeks after Sunday before I can start putting pressure on my leg again.)


	22. Joey

Henry was having a hard time focusing. First off he recently learned that he was drafted and only had a few weeks left in the studio… second was the declining health of both Susie and Boris’s voice actor, Mike. It made Henry’s blood boil especially with what happened to Nick a year ago.

The animator didn’t want to tell any of the toons what he saw with Nick… He didn’t want them to feel like they were to blame for it after all. It wasn’t their fault how they were brought into the world… it was Joey’s.

_ He’s been playing with that book for too long…  _ Henry thought with a scowl, his eyes narrowed at the work that was on his desk but not focusing on the paper… nor the tall wolf that entered his room.

**“Henry? You alright?”** Boris asked, his ears lowering at the angry look on the animator’s face. Henry blinked in surprised and slowly he replaced the anger he had towards his friend with a smile towards the wolf.

“Just the stress getting to me bud. What’s up?” Henry asked, trying to change the conversation to something else… Boris didn’t seem to want to change it though.

**“Stress about what? Did… did something bad happen?”** Henry’s smile fell and he tried to look away. He should have known Boris’s bleeding heart wouldn’t let the wolf let something like that slip by him.

“Just… it’s not that important Boris…” Henry tried to focus on the work he had at his desk instead of the upset look on the wolf’s face. As he tried to ignore the toon wolf, he was soon finding himself getting lost in thought again… especially since he would be leaving for the war soon and he still hadn’t told Bendy, Alice or… or Boris.

As soon as those thoughts crossed his mind he felt arms wrap around him in a comforting embrace. Henry blinked and took a small glance over his shoulder only to see Boris practically nuzzling into his back as the wolf hugged him. 

_ I… must have been making an upset look…  _ Henry thought as he placed a comforting hand on the toon wolf’s head. Henry always did have a bad poker face after all when he wasn’t paying attention. 

The two sat there for a while in quiet, the only thing that interrupted them was the arrival of Joey Drew himself… Henry was instantly on edge.

“There you are Boris. Norman was looking for you,” Joey smiled as he watched the toon and his old friend. Boris perked up and glanced between the creator and the animator for a moment, only for Henry to look up at him with a smile.

“Go on Bud. I heard we got a few new clarinets down there if you want to give them a go,” Henry smiled as he saw how Boris’s expression brightened considerably at the mention of new clarinets. The wolf left, after giving a small hug to Henry and a whisper of “Hope you feel better”, leaving the two humans alone.

“What’s your real reason for being here Joey?” Henry asked, his calm fatherly expression shifting into one of anger as he looked up to his oldest friend.

“Well for starters it’s my studio,” Joey laughed as if nothing was wrong… but Henry knew better.

“Have you even looked in that damned book of yours to save Mike and Susie?” Henry questioned, getting straight to the point… after all from what he himself found in that book they both didn’t have more than a year or two left. Joey’s smile fell, making his face almost look blank at Henry’s words.

“Not unless you want Boris and Alice to suffer instead,” Joey’s voice was cold, but his smirk returned when he saw Henry flinch at what was said. “After all, they are the ones taking their souls in order to live… I could just do a reverse ritual and undo everything… But how do you think Bendy would feel at losing his fellow toons?”

“How do you think he would feel about knowing how they came to be?!” Henry snapped, getting that overconfident smirk off Joey’s face and replacing it with surprise. “DO you even have an idea of how they would even react Joey? Breaking News Joey, they would feel like shit and blame themselves!”

To Joey’s own credit he stayed unmoving from the doorway, even as Henry got up in his face.

“Bendy would feel the most guilt as Nick’s dead and can’t be brought back Joey! Boris wouldn’t want ANYONE to suffer and do what he thinks is best to help! Alice would hate herself and want Susie to live! She would do that reverse ritual herself Joey!” Henry shouted, all his repressed anger bubbling over the top by this point and he felt like he was just getting started… but Joey cut him off by placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I know… Look Henry, I am sorry about Nick. That one was an accident. Mike I thought was a coincidence but when Susie began to get sick…” Joey looked down, actually almost looking guilty for once. “What’s done is done Henry… I looked through the book there’s no way for both the toons and the actors to live unless we give up one or the other.”

Henry wanted to shout more at Joey… but he couldn’t… it really hurt and he felt selfish for even wanting the toons to stay alive instead of the actors. Even if he kept fighting Joey on this the animator knew either way would end in loss.

“Henry.” The animator looked up, his expression defeated with only a weak glare left in his eyes. Joey on the other hand had a very serious look on his face.

“I am working on something that might help.” That had Henry’s attention… as well as a bad feeling in his gut.

“Help how?”

“Given time, I’m sure it’ll make everything  _ better,  _ **_perfect_ ** even. Henry… I just need time to work everything out.”

“Didn’t you say-”

“I know… but that was just one book,” Henry tensed and looked on at his friend in shock.

“Joey-”

“Trust me Henry. I’m sure this second book has more answers in it to our little problem. Just give me time and I can fix  _ everything. _ ”

Henry felt conflicted… he wanted to slap Joey and take the second book away… but… if it could help keep both the actors and toons alive….

“... Swear to me that you don’t use any other ritual in that book, even when I return from war.”

“I swear old friend,” Joey smiled, and shook Henry’s hand as if they just made a deal. Neither one noticing the toon angel outside the doorway having listened to their entire argument and stumbling away in shock at what she had learned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this one took awhile to write... I've been a little busy for a while with my Birthday, two of my best friends birthdays being five days before and after mine and a check up to see how my leg is healing.... I've been kinda stripped on ideas for a little while but hey got this one down and a second one being worked on!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this update!!


	23. Present Day: False Angel

Henry and the toons had all spent a good chunk of time in the safe room, the painted symbol on the door being the only thing to keep the corrupted ink creatures out of the room. The old man had time to rest up and even treat the few wounds he got from the Searchers. Alice giving some old coats and limited supplies from the Infirmary to help out.

During that time however, Henry noticed how Alice seemed to be a little more faded in the black areas that made up her being then both Boris and Bendy… most likely having something to due with the fact she seemed to avoid touching the ink as much as possible… but what was really curious was how Boris seemed to have no memories at all of the past 30 years Henry had been gone for. Bendy and Alice didn’t seem to have any answers for it either… or rather, Bendy didn’t while Alice seemed to be holding something back.

Bendy during this time, was more then happy to have his favorite human back. The ink demon was cracking jokes with Henry like it was the old days, something Henry was very grateful for as a distraction from what’s going on on the outside. 

**“... We should work on getting you to the exit now,”** Alice finally spoke up after a long while of rest and relaxation. Boris, Henry and Bendy all perked up at it and the demon seemed to frown a little.

**_“So soon though?”_ **

**“Yes… we… we can’t let what happened to the others happen to him as well…”** Alice muttered while avoiding eye contact and going to the door. Boris’s ears lowered and Henry’s eyes widened as he slowly realized what that implied.

“Alice… How many others are still here?” Henry asked immediately, already knowing at least Sammy was still here… emphasis on was that is. The angel looked up to the old animator with a sad look.

**“To many… Far… Far too many…”** Alice opened the door as she spoke. Henry wanted to ask more but Alice cut him off.  **“There’s no turning back the clock for them Henry… Just… just don’t think about them and keep moving.”**

The angel then stepped out into the hall and barely even waited for the boys before she started heading off to god knew where anymore. 

**_“She watched it happen ya know…”_ ** Bendy muttered, remembering how when Alice would sometimes sleep she would always have nightmares about everything that’s happened in the studio. One in particular kept coming to mind for the demon as the poor angel had that nightmare more frequently.

**“W-Watched what Ben?”** Boris hesitantly asked as the group began to file out of the room and after the angel. Henry leaned in a little, morbidly curious about what the demon was talking about himself.

**_“... Quite a few things from what I picked up bud… Norman, Sammy, Wally… you name them, she’s probably seen them,”_ ** Bendy explained, having heard too many of the angel’s regrets to keep proper track… and also seeing the end results for himself to many times as well. His own heart hurting every time he had seen any of the results for himself.

Henry himself felt his own heart clench, remembering Sammy and the echoes of his final screams… and trying to bring up any of the old memories he had of the musician that only resulted in seeing that twisted form he had.

_ Joey… what have you done?  _ Henry thought as his grip on the fire ax he held tightened in anger. His old co-workers deserved none of this… and Joey had practically destroyed the moral line at this point from everything the old animator has seen.

**“Is… Isn’t there anyway we can help them?”** Boris offered, trying to keep hope that there might be someway to save the old workers. The wolf himself had developed a soft spot for a lot of them after he got used to them… Norman was always someone he especially enjoyed spending time with aside from Henry and Sammy.

**_“Maybe with you and Henry around we could figure somethin’ out!”_ ** Bendy laughed, though even after all these years Henry could still pick up how forced it seemed to be… like the demon had lost that hope a long time ago. The man wanted to pat the toon demon and tell him that everything would be alright, but was interrupted.

**“Watch your step around here boys…”** Alice’s voice called out, just as they passed through large metal doors and into a wide open area. Ink was falling down in a bit of a waterfall nearly blocking the sign for “Heavenly Toys” that hung above the room. Plush toys of the main crew scattered about all in different sizes. Henry couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the place, he had no recollection of this ever being here before. It was both amazing, yet concerning to the old man.

**“Little Miracle Box?”** Boris’s voice sounded confused and Henry turned and saw what the wolf was talking about. It reminded him of a confessional box that was homemade with spare parts from around the decrepit old studio and had a halo painted on it in ink.

**_“Oh no…”_ ** Bendy winced, knowing what that meant for him and Alice just kept looking ahead with a far off look in her pie cut eyes. Her hand had tightened around the hammer she carried before she started to march forward.

Boris and Henry shared a confused look between each other before following after the angel and Bendy seemed much more hesitant in following this time. The demon’s form dripping more ink than usual with his increased anxiety at the area.

“What’s wrong here?” Henry questioned in an almost demanding tone, wanting to know what had the demon on edge around here and why Alice seemed to have a quicker pace than usual here.

**_“See this whole area… it’s mostly HER territory… and she’s ruthless…”_ ** Bendy tried to explain, but seemed to only confuse Henry and Boris further, even when they paused at the forked path that had both “Demon” and “Angel” on the arrowed signs pointing to different directions. Alice took the angel path and Bendy started to make way for the demon one, leaving Henry and Boris to be confused and conflicted on who each was gonna follow.

In the end Boris decided to follow after Alice down the Angel path, and Henry decided to follow Bendy. A silent agreement of safety in numbers between the two of them.

“Bud… Who’s this ‘Her’ you’re talking about?”

**_“... Ya know about there being another me an all already…”_ ** Bendy sighed as the two went through the ink filled room, Bendy traversing with ease while Henry tried not to slip or flinch at the amount there was in the room. Henry however felt his eyes widen when Bendy’s words clicked in his head.

“... Another Alice Angel then?”

**_“Yeah… but unlike our Alice.”_ ** Bendy paused, shivering a little from as they approached the end of the room and were about to enter a hallway.

**_“She’s more a devil then I am…”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Honor of Chapter three coming out... HERE'S AN UPDATE FINALLY!!!
> 
> No but seriously... I kinda wanted to wait till Chapter 3 came out before I updated more to get a better feel of how things were gonna go and where to really go with this story. I'll try to make a few more past chapters as well as a few more "Present" time ones in the next few weeks on top of the other chapters for my other stories I'm working on.
> 
> Anyways, sorry again for the long wait! Hope you all enjoy!


	24. Beginnings of Hell

Henry was walking through the halls to the break room to get a fresh cup of coffee as well as take a well deserved break after working for hours to get his shots done for the newest Bendy short they were working on. As the animator approached the room the smell of smoke alerted him that a coworker was already in there.

“Well look at that, one of the resident vampires sees the light of day,” the voice of Norman laughed as soon as Henry entered the room. The man was sitting at one of the tables near the window and had a cigarette hanging in between his fingers as he tapped it lightly to get some of the burnt end off. “In all honesty though how’s it going Henry?”

“Well I’m not burning up yet so that’s a plus,” Henry chuckled as he went to the counter in the room and began to prepare his coffee. The animator turned to the projectionist as he waited for it to heat up first. “How’s the other resident vampire?”

“Ah, you know the same old, same old. He’s been calling some of the old band idiots when they mess up and having to make sure the little devil darling himself doesn’t mess with the instruments again,” Norman laughed while Henry just smirked a little.

“While hearing that Sammy’s doing alright, I meant you Norman.” 

“Eh can’t complain too much, aside from one of my projectors breaking down the other day and repairs aren’t going as smooth as they should.” Norman took a drag of his cigarette. 

“Joey skipped out on paying for the needed parts again?” Henry questioned with a sigh as he got the mug ready.

“Yup,” Norman sighed, as he snuffed the cigarette out in the ashtray on the table.

“Let me guess… Joey did something idiotic again and we’re all complaining?” The voice of Sammy Lawrence caused both men to turn their attention to the doorway where the Music Director was just walking in with a cigarette of his own just being lit.

“Well look what the little devil himself dragged up from the music department,” Norman commented, getting an annoyed huff from the Music Director. “Ya got something to complain about with Mr. Drew as well?”

“You do remember who you’re talking to right Norman?” Henry chuckled, pouring the finished coffee into his mug and ignoring the glare that Sammy shot to him.

“IF you must know… Joey came right into my office wondering where the new musical score was when I just got the order to work on it YESTERDAY. Musical process takes time after all and it’s not easy picking the perfect keys,” Sammy ranted, causing Norman and Henry to share a glance between each other for a moment before something else was mentioned. “And when I passed Joey’s office I could practically smell all those damn candles in there. Is he trying to burn the studio down?”

“... Candles?” Henry asked.

“Why would Mr. Drew need that many lit anyways? Lights work just fine…” Norman pointed out and looked to Henry for answers.

“I’ll… go check it out,” Henry responded and left the break room to check on Joey, leaving the Projectionist and Music Director alone in the room.

“Personally I think Joey’s finally lost his mind,” Sammy scoffed after exhaling the smoke he took up. 

“Well aside from having a bunch of candles lit when the electricity works just fine…” Norman trailed off only for Sammy to wave him off.

“That’s not it. He was chanting something when I passed by the room.” Norman looked confused at those words before standing up to leave the room himself. Both from the fact his break was technically over… but also because he was curious on what his boss was doing at the moment.

“I’m gonna check it out… See ya in the recording room Sammy,” Norman waved off the Music Director who did the same as he continued to try and relax on his smoke break.

As soon as the Projectionist got to Joey’s office he was surprised to see Henry practically bolt from the room as if the dogs of hell were on his tail. Norman was both confused and concerned… after all Henry never got that freaked out before.

“Hey Joey, what’s-” Whatever Norman was going to say died on his tongue as he took in the scene before him. His boss, Joey Drew, stood before an intricately drawn pentagram that was lined with the lit candles and littered with many, many empty ink bottles scattered around… but what really had him surprised was what his boss was petting on the head and smiling at.

“Welcome to the world, my little Devil Darling.”

Norman backed up with widened eyes, he wasn’t able to completely comprehend what just happened… or rather what was happening. After all… Cartoon characters shouldn’t be alive and moving… or even looking right at him with a curious gaze like the toon demon was right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we get to see a little bit of Norman and Sammy, just thought I'd build on them a little more for this AU
> 
> Side note- I still don't have a name for this AU yet... Anyone got any suggestions?


	25. A Change in Perspective

Henry had been gone for a little more than a week and Norman could already pick up the down grade in mood of the studio. The little devil Darling himself seemed the most down in mood, Boris was not far behind… and Alice hadn’t been in the brightest of moods for nearly a month.

“I’m telling ya Sammy, it’s like Nick’s passing all over again.” Norman sighed as he tested the projector before the band got into the recording room. Sammy himself glanced up from the sheet music he had prepared.

“Nick was a tragedy. Unlike his brother Henry has a chance of returning,” The music director replied as he organized the papers in his hands. Norman glanced over at Sammy before clicking his projector off and gazing down at the recording room, seeing Alice plucking some strings of the violin in the room. Possibly wanting to play a bit for the recording, or waiting to record some lines while Susie was out with the same sickness that Mike had.

“I’m just sayin’ poor toons are all taking it rather hard. Specially our little Devil Darling himself. I don’t even think I’ve ever seen any animator draw such a sad sight for the little fella.”

Sammy sighed and motioned for Norman to follow him as he was heading for the recording room itself to place the sheet paper onto the music stands.

“There’s not much we can do but pray they can move on, and that Henry will one day return safely.” The Music Director went through the doorway to the recording room that the resident angel sat in with a downcast expression as she absent mindedly plucked the strings of the violin. Sammy cast her a glance and a sympathetic look as he went about work.

Norman looked like he was going to say something until Alice surprised them.

**“Sammy… can I ask you something important.”** Her hair covered her pie cut eyes as she continued to look down. Her hand moved away from the violin and onto her knee like the other one was.

“... Yes Ms. Angel…” Sammy cleared his throat a little, having been surprised at her speaking up. 

**“Could… Could you convince Joey to find someone else to take Susie’s place as my main voice actor?”** Both Sammy and Norman were surprised at the angel’s request. Norman saw how her hands seemed to tighten around her knees. This request seemed to be tearing her up inside.

“Ms. Angel I don’t-” Sammy tried to say how that wouldn’t work out to well, but Alice cut him off quickly.

**“Please… It… It doesn’t have to be right away, but… but just for… for when she seems to be feeling worse.”**

...

Norman could never get how desperate Alice seemed to be that day nearly a year ago now. It ate at his mind for a while and he had slunk around trying to see if he could find any information on why she would ask for that. Sure Sammy did follow through a few weeks ago in finding Alison and got Joey to approve of her as the main voice actress for the angel… but Norman couldn’t get the uneasy feeling out of his gut. Especially since soon after Alison was hired, Susie seemed to be getting better from her illness… while Mike had passed away before the new voice actress was hired.

So here he was, sneaking into Joey’s office while the boss himself was out on break trying to see if anything the guy had would have lead to the angel being so scared. The Projectionist would have done this sooner but it was surprisingly difficult with how little Joey left said office… and adding his own duties to the list as well as not being able to stay after hours.

_ Drew’s gonna have my head if he ever finds out about this.  _ Norman thought with a wince as he looked around the office.

The carpet that covered the permanently stained in satanic circle that brought the toons to life looked like it had seen better days due to the installation of the Ink Machine. The walls were no better as drips of ink fell from the pipes down the pale walls and making puddles on the floor. The only thing left untouched by the inky mess was Joey’s desk.

Making his way over to the desk Norman got to work quickly looking through the drawers for anything that looked out of place or could have given a hint to the answer he was looking for. 

_ Papers… Papers… Letters to Henry and From Henry? Why are they unopened?  _ Norman had paused when he found the letters and frowned deeply as he recognized Boris’s hand writing for the letters that were supposed to be sent To Henry. The Projectionist pocketed a few of them promising to mail them off… but also give the toons some of the letters from the animator. 

He went back to looking and was nearly out of luck until he found a black book hidden at the bottom of one of the drawers. Looking at the book gave the projectionist a bad feeling and made his heart feel like it was pounding heavily in his chest. Something was not right with that book… and yet he found himself pulling it out and flipping through the pages.

Inside were rituals and their descriptions. A lot of it he couldn’t make too much sense of and he didn’t stick on one for long… until he found one page that made everything come together and Norman nearly dropped the book as his heart stopped.

On the page was the same symbol that was stained into the floor under the rug. The Ritual was to bring life to something lifeless with a catalyst… and living soul. 

“God Lord Mr. Drew…” Norman breathed in pure shock as his eyes practically absorbed the information on the page.

“You know Norman.” The voice of Joey Drew snapped the Projectionist’s gaze away from the book and made fear rise up in his chest as the boss stepped into the room. The ink seemed to get thicker and more seemed to drip down at Joey’s presence alone. The more Norman looked at him the more he noticed how the man’s appearance seemed to distort as ink seemed to start covering the man out of nowhere.

**“Snooping around the Office isn’t a very good idea.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A change in perspective can be a good thing, it can lead one to seeing things in a new light, or making new discoveries.   
> And to be honest, I'm kinda liking how I write Norman to the point I might wanna include him a little more. I'll see where it goes in future drabbles.


	26. Into the Darkness Below

A creak echoed the seemingly empty halls as Alice carefully pulled herself out of the “Little Miracle Station” boxes. Ax in hand as she scanned her surroundings she let out a shaky sigh of relief when nothing was seen before closing the door behind her.

**_One good thing she did was make these…_ ** Alice thought with a saddened and tired expression on her face as she looked at the halo symbol on the door. Gloved fingers traced it for a moment as she was lost in thought before she forced herself to snap out of it and got moving… she had a mission after all.

Walking through the halls and doing her best to avoid the ink pools that were almost everywhere she kept glancing around everywhere around her. The angel was on high alert as she kept moving as quickly, and carefully as possible in the toy room… her pie cut eyes looking a little downcast at the numerous dolls of herself that lined the shelves and the minimum amount of Boris and Bendy dolls. It almost made her want to rip the doll versions of herself up just to even them out… and avoid the reminder of how she was all on her own now.

**_But then again… she would hate that as much as he would when I ruin anything with Bendy…_ ** Alice thought, not wanting to draw either of them towards her quite yet. Before she left the room she heard the tell tale distorted garble of one of the Butcher Gang coming in to attack. She waited for the sound to get closer for a moment then whipped around with the ax and cut deep into what was once supposed to be Charley. The twisted version of the nearly bald chimpanzee humanoid always made Alice’s heart twist in fear in the same way as all of the other Butcher gang members she’s seen in the real world… but as the incomplete toon tried to hit her with his wrench she was able to block it out of her mind and move out of the way before taking “Charley’s” head clean off with a second swipe of the ax.

**“Please forgive me…”** she whispered as the body started to melt back into the ink it was formed from. With a deep breath she turned back and quickly made her way out of the room, knowing that since one found her now, more were soon to follow. Alice threw a door open and made a dash down the stairs before her, and only stopping and practically jumping into the closest “Little Miracle Station” to take a breather. 

She leaned her head on one of the walls, her halo being pushed away from it’s usual place on her head just a little bit and one of her horns turned so it wouldn’t stick to the wood as she took a deep sigh. On the outside she heard a few more distorted grumbles of more incomplete members of the Butcher Gang getting closer to her position… yet she still waited and calmed herself down quite a bit as they passed by her hiding spot.

Once they had left the area she finally left the hiding spot and continued down the stairs and through a few halls to her destination… Floor 14. As usual by this point, Alice tensed up at the large amount of ink on this floor itself… but she had something important to do on this floor. Just as she was about to step down onto the ink covered floor, the same groans she heard before grew rather loud behind her and she couldn’t help but let out one of her own.

**“You’ve got to be kidding me…”** She rubbed one of her hands across her face as she groaned in annoyance before taking a deep breath and jumping off into the ink below. Immediately as usual she felt the vial ink being pulled into her very being and healing whatever injuries she once had. Her expression turned to one of discomfort as she quickly waded through the substance. 

The noises behind her grew louder as her pursuers started to catch up and dive into the ink as she made for one of the maze like hallways, only to be stopped by a bright light being shined in her face. The angel had to bring a hand up to shield her eyes but the loud screech it made was more than enough for her to know what… no who this was.

From the sound of splashing she heard, some of the incomplete Butcher Gang had left, but the few still determined pressed on after her ignoring the imminent danger of what was to come. She did turn just in time to see what was once supposed to be the Spider toon, Edgar, was the first one to get close but soon met the floor beneath the ink as a large lanky figure with a projector on their head slammed them hard to the ground… killing them instantly. 

**“On your right!”** Alice shouted quickly, just as the twisted version of Barely came running in with his head swinging from his old fishing rob and his wrench raised high for a strike on the Projectionist, only for said being to grab the line that held the old Fisherman’s head and for the Angel to come in quickly with a harsh swing of her ax and cut the rod itself in two as well as severing a portion of his shoulder. The incomplete Barely fell to the ink below lifeless once more.

After taking out the few stragglers Alice sat herself down onto one of the crates that sat above the flooded floors, her ax resting on the side of it and let out a sigh of relief. The Projectionist turned his head in her direction and held up a hand to point at the fallen Butcher gang in an almost questioning manner.

**“... Sorry about the unexpected company Norman…”** The angel sighed before giving the ink turned worker a soft smile.  **“Better than** **_them_ ** **at least huh?”**

The mechanical sound of whirring in the projector was her only audio response as Norman nodded his head slowly and crossed his arms over the speaker in his chest for a moment, making Alice perk up for a moment before rummaging through her bag.

**“Oh and I almost forgot! I brought some things to fix that speaker finally!”**

Norman’s head rose up a little in surprise as she pulled out some tools and some pieces she took from other speakers on a different level. Alice looked like she was about to ask him to let her help, but Norman held up one of his hands in a “Stop” motion before carefully taking the parts and tools carefully into his own hands.

**“Oh… can’t I at least help you a little?”**

Norman took a moment to carefully shake his head “No” before motioning to himself, his speaker, to her, then to where his ears would have been had his head been normal and finally to the items in his hands. Alice looked a little dejected by the motions as she picked up what he was trying to tell her, but accepted his reasoning… she didn’t really know how to do it herself anyways.

Norman took in her expression and downcast eyes for a moment before patting her gently on the head in a comforting gesture, then motioning for her to follow him. The angel perked up a bit at that, but grimaced once again as she had to trudge through the ink once again. 

The two soon found themselves in a “Safe Room” hidden away on Norman’s floor that had a table top on it with a slightly dirty mirror on it, a few chairs, a few shelves with some projectors and their parts along it, and a painted on “Seal of Protection” on the door as Alice made sure it was closed behind them. Norman sat down in the chair in front of the table before spreading the tools and parts out onto the table and looking each of them over a little more closely. Alice joined up and sat in the other chair a respectable distance away from the projectionist.

**“Did I get all the right parts?”**

Norman didn’t respond to her question for a moment, his projector’s lense seemed to be focusing in on each little bit and piece for a moment before finally nodding “Yes” and making Alice get a bright smile on her face.

**_I was finally able to help someone in this hell._ ** She thought with her smile and her gaze turning to the Seal of Protection on the door. It was one of the few things Norman had remembered from the short time he had Joey’s book before… before this happened, and it’s been the most helpful thing for the two during these long years in this hell.

Her smile soon slid off her face the longer she looked at it. The gears in her brain processing everything and formulating her next plan… 

**“Norman…”**

The Projectionist didn’t look in her direction, but did knock on the table twice to let her know he was listening.

**“I’m going to go to Joey’s office… and get his book.”**

Norman’s head snapped up as quickly as he could make it go and turned to her. His face non existent but still Alice could tell he was looking at her with surprise and concern. After all… Joey’s office was the most heavily guarded place in the whole studio.

And where the Ink Demon himself was more often than anywhere else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I figured out what I'm gonna do with Norman for this AU and story!! 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this new chapter, and hope you all had a Happy Halloween! (Late to say that I know, but hey still hope you all had a good time!)


	27. An Angel in Hell (Broken Notes, Broken Hopes pt 3)

Alice jolted up, taking deep breaths as she looked around to see herself in the an ink filled room, different from the one she passed out in when… when those things attacked her. She didn’t even remember passing out… but from those things that attacked her, it wasn’t much of a surprise really.

**“... Bendy?”** her voice croaked out, as if she hadn’t used it in a while. Slowly pushing herself up she stumbled a little after getting to her feet but didn’t stop from looking around the room for any sign of the toon demon.

**“Bendy?!”** Alice called out, not seeing hide nor hair of the dancing demon. She grimaced when some ink dripped down onto the back of her neck from the ceiling above her, possibly from a pipe or one of the ink floods in a floor above… but what made it worse was the sound of screaming she heard after it touched her. She jolted out of the way of the ink and to the door with the look of pure shock and a bit of fear on her face. 

**_What was that?!_ ** Alice thought, still shuddering and vaguely hearing the screams from the ink. It didn’t help her either that now that she was finally taking in the whole room. She didn’t recognize it at all, the merchandise such as the Bendy clock and the few plush toys of her and the other two made her think that she was somewhere close to Shawn’s toy department. However the unsettling amount of ink had her shaking and seeing a makeshift bed that she was clearly placed on didn’t help either.

**_How… How did I get here? Who brought me here? Where’s Bendy? How… how long have I been here?_ **

Try as she might, Alice couldn’t find any clue for any of those questions. Not from anything off the top of her head or anything in the room. 

**_I need to get out of here…_ **

With those words in mind the angel shuffled her way to the door, legs feeling like jello and unsteady as she walked but seemed to slowly get stronger with each and every step as she finally went outside the door… to see that she could barely recognize anything. 

Ink was everywhere, it stained more than the floors and dripped excessively from the ceiling and walls. The pips were no better, casing a patter on the ground that was covered with broken wooden boards and toppled over projectors, some of which playing some of the Bendy shorts that were still on the tapes. 

**_What… What the heck is going on? This… this is still the same studio right?_ ** Alice thought, her body shaking a little bit and pie cut eyes wide. She normally recognized everything in the studio, from the cracks to minor little details but this… she couldn’t recognize anything or spot any tell tale sign of where she was. Though… Alice knew that just standing around wouldn’t help her with figuring out where she was… but it didn’t help that when she touched the ink she heard screaming in her head, nearly deafening her thoughts and giving her a major headache.

Alice nearly avoided going out into the screaming ink… until she heard the sound of something  **inhuman** screaming from the opposite end of the hallway she stepped into. She only took a small glance at the thing before it clicked in her head that this… this thing was much taller than her… and it was coming right for her.

**_Through the hell ink it is!_ **

Alice raced through the ink as fast as her weakened legs could take her, adrenaline making it less apparent the more she ran. The screaming in her head also seemed to be drowned out by her fear as she rounded on a few corners before finding an elevator that was open. Not questioning why or how the angel lept into it and quickly slammed her hand onto any button she could.

The iron bars closed to slow for her liking as the thing chasing her was coming in to close for comfort. The blinding light it was giving off didn’t help either but eventually they did close and the elevator began to ascend. 

As the rising cage continued it’s climb Alice soon found herself falling to her knees and gasping for breath, her limbs shook uncontrollably and her head pounded in pain. The inky angel pushed herself closer to the only solid part of the elevator and pulled her knees up to her chest, as well as burying her own face into them as well, with eyes clenched closed to try and calm the pounding in her head. 

Once the lift finally stopped at whatever the destination that Alice had blindly hit, she finally looked up and slowly blinked a little. Her head still hurt a little but it was at least a little better and she felt like she could at least stand up again. Using the bars the angel pulled herself up and stumbled out carefully from the elevator into the unknown once again.

Once off the elevator she saw the large letter K painted on the wall and found that it rang absolutely no bells whatsoever. Hell she knew there shouldn’t really have been an elevator here and yet... 

**_What the heck is going on?_ **

The sound of movement surprised the little angel, even more so then the sound of the elevator descending behind her. Looking to where she first heard the sound she saw a small black figure run into a hallway and out of her vision.

**“... Bendy!”** Alice called out, knowing that the Dancing Demon was the only thing in the studio around that size and being made of ink as well. Her shoes thumped loud against the floor and she didn’t bother to adjust the hem of her dress at all as she climbed the short amount of stairs and chased after the figure she saw.

She followed as best she could but it appeared that “Bendy” had somehow eluded her… and led her to another ink flooded room, this time it seemed to be full of the small plush toys Shawn and his crew made of the gang. Carefully leaning in and snagging one of the Bendy ones, Alice held it up and couldn’t help but smile a little that it was one of Shawn’s “Signature” dolls with the crooked smile and little extra stitching. Alice knew Joey hated them so much but Shawn seemed to like to go out of his way to make the boss angry that he would have at least one of these in every room of his department. All of them somewhere out of reach for the man or hidden among the “Perfect” ones.

**“Guess we’re in the Toy department after all… Huh Bendy?”** Alice questioned the doll as she began feeling a little bit more comfortable, and familiar with the room now… but there was still a sense of discomfort and unknown to the room as well with all the ink in the room and staining some of the dolls. Strangely the “Crooked” doll didn’t have any stains on it despite being on the floor.

Clutching the doll close to her chest for a moment, Alice began to make her way through the room, trying to tiptoe through the ink and not touch the screaming liquid anymore then she had to, she eventually made it to the other side and out of the ink filled room. Gazing down the hallway in front of her, Alice took a deep breath before calling out for the demon she was familiar with.

**“BENDY! Could you stop running away for five seconds and actually come TALK to me?!”**

Two steps into the hallway and she already heard movement coming her way. A relieved smile came across her face for a moment until she saw  _ something  _ that was clearly not the dancing demon. It was small like the demon but it had three arms, one of which looked to be held together by something mechanical, a stitched up mouth with a second sideways mouth on top of it’s head chattering away, one eye looked like the standard pie cut that Boris, Bendy and herself had while the other it… it was a human's eye that looked like it was being forced open. It came running at her and the angel backed away with a scream.

The angel backed away in time as the three armed… thing nearly hit her with it’s more mechanical looking arm. When it’s arm pulled back it seemed to try to get in closer to attack the angel, who kicked it as hard as she could in the face, making it stumble back quite a ways, and booked it back the way she came.

The thing, the… the Stiker, seemed to follow after the toon angel for whatever reason as she hurried back to the elevator, only to see that it wasn’t at her floor.

**“No, no, no, no, NO!”** The angel screamed as she practically punched the call button before having to jump away for a moment as the Stiker attempted to attack her once again. As the Striker’s arm pulled itself back Alice’s eyes darted around the room for anything, and then she saw it. Hidden by a bunch of barrels was a fire axe, sitting there and almost beckoning her to take it into her white gloved hands. The only problem… it was on the other side of the creature attacking her. Her hands clenched tight for just a second as she tried to think only for the sound of a squeak to ring out and make her realize, she was still holding onto the Bendy doll.

It only took a moment for her to quickly throw it at the Striker, the creature flinching back from it almost like it was a weapon of itself and causing enough of an opening for Alice to slide through quickly and grab the axe. The Striker, seeing her much closer now attempted to use it’s arm once again to hit her only for the angel to swing the newly acquired weapon with all her might… and not just cutting the arm off but also a good portion of it’s head as well.

It let out a disturbing gurgling noise as it fell to the ground in front of Alice, ink spilling out of it’s stitched up lips as well as pooling out from the “neck” before it finally went still… and Alice froze up in horror of what she had just done. The axe fell from the angel’s shaking hands and she continued to stare on in frozen horror as the body of the Striker melted back into ink.

**“What… what have I done?”**

Inky tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She was too shaken up to even realize that the Elevator finally came up… and the thing that had chased her a while back was in it as well. She never noticed it get close to her until she felt a hand move under her halo and gently rub her head in a form of comfort.

Looking up, Alice realized that the light she had originally seen from it was from the projector head it had, the light seemed to be a little dimmer at the moment as it wasn’t hurting her eyes. A film wheel was embedded on its shoulder, a speaker was embedded on its chest, long wires seemed to descend from it’s head and attach to points on it’s back, arms and legs. It’s tall body seemed to be made out of ink like her but less toon like and… more “Human” like which was the best she could explain.

She couldn’t tell why but… she felt a little more comfortable as the projector headed being seemed to be trying to comfort her… and in all honesty, she really appreciated it right now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy hell it's been a while since I last updated this... I'm really sorry for starters BUT good news, I'm back and with a few new ideas and a little inspiration thanks to the new chapter release of the game!  
> I'm gonna try to find ways to incorporate a few of these new elements into the game but I might also leave a few things out in order to keep a certain flow I've got going on here.
> 
> Anyways with all that out of the way, I hope you all enjoy this new drabble!


	28. Present Time: Separation

Henry wasn’t sure how to take that news. Another Alice? The fact she was more like a demon? Henry could only picture the Alice Angel he knew from the day her design had been finalized, to the day she finally came to life. Trying to picture that Alice and make her more evil? It was like trying to say that Henry’s dancing skills improved over the years… it’s next to impossible for the old man to imagine, though he wasn’t going to tell that to Bendy.

“So this… other Alice-” Henry started only for Bendy to seemingly react to something up ahead and cover the man’s mouth quickly. Henry let out a muffled noise of surprise as Bendy pulled the old animator to the wall and seemed to try to make them seem as flat as possible for a moment. The sound of clicking heels was softly heard on the wooden floor as well as a low hum of a vaguely familiar tune. Henry narrowed his eyes a little bit as he listened to the humming and tried to place where he had heard that tune before… but was coming up short at the moment.

Bendy seemed to be on edge from listening to the humming, and seemed dead set on keeping Henry out of sight or from seeing the person who was making the soft melody until it finally stopped and the footsteps also faded away. Once he was sure he couldn’t hear either he finally let Henry go and took a peek into the hallway for a moment, before giving Henry an all clear thumbs up.

Though Henry was confused in all honesty on why all of this was necessary… It did still make a little bit of sense to the old man as the studio wasn’t exactly “Safe” anymore.

The duo made a quick run, well more like Henry tried to run while Bendy sorta just kept a few steps ahead of the old man, down the hall. Henry did take quick note on something important and paused long enough to look around the area. Bendy slowed down and stopped with a concerned look on his face from noticing that the old animator wasn’t exactly following him.

**_“Henry, come on we’re getting-”_ **

“Where are Boris and Alice?” Henry interrupted after taking in the whole area. The old animator may not know the whole layout of the building anymore… but from how close the “Demon and Angel” paths were they should have at least seen the other two toons by now.

Bendy blinked and seemed to notice it himself finally… and a look of great concern crossed the taller demon’s face.

**_“They… they’re usually connected though….”_ **

The uncomfortable silence passed for about one beat, before both the dripping ink demon and the old man carrying an axe practically started to raid every door they could find to try to see where the wolf and angel had disappeared to.

Both boys were to busy in their panic and worry to notice that a figure above them on an upper level took immediate notice of them from their perch… and a growing, smile crossed their half rotting face.

Meanwhile Boris and Alice weren’t having much fun either. Turns out the two rooms, though usually connected, seemed to have been split off from one another.

**“I swear if** **_HE_ ** **had something to do with this, I will use every last drop of Acetone on him and make sure** **_HE_ ** **stays nothing more than a puddle of ink.”** Alice grumbled as both she and Boris were doing their best to avoid the surprisingly ink filled room they stumbled into.

**“Uh…. did… did we go the wrong way Al?”** Boris questioned, not really getting all the anger… and feeling completely out of the loop. Alice sighed at the wolf’s question and ran a hand down her face for a moment before finally addressing him.

**“No Boris… At least we shouldn’t have. But as things turn out, the layout of the building has recently shifted.”** Alice scanned the area once they got into a more cleaned up area, looking for a tell tale sign of where they are before spotting the cage of an elevator and feeling a cold sense of dread.  **“... We’re taking the stairs.”**

Boris’s ear twitched and he was about to ask her why they would do that, but the faded angel was already ahead of him and going through a doorway. The taller toon scrambled to follow after her. The angel was walking down the stairs like she was on some sort of mission.

**“Al, I don’t mean to sound rude or anything… but wouldn’t the elevator be faster?”**

**“To where we’re going? Yes, yes it would. Would it be safer than the stairs? No, no it would not… not as long as** **_she_ ** **can still control it…”** Alice’s expression went from determined to full on regret when she had talked about “Her”... Boris was really not liking this pronoun game, nor did he enjoy the fact he was clearly being kept in the dark about many things.

**“... Alice, just what the heck is even going on? What happened here? Why are we avoiding ink… WHO are these “Him” and “She” you are talking about?! Why… Why can’t I remember anything after Henry left?!”** Boris started out firm but his anger and confusion rose with his voice as he spilled all these questions to the female toon. Alice herself flinched at the volume of Boris’s voice and had to check all around the room for any signs of being caught… only for the tell tale sounds of the messed up Butcher Gang heading their direction from both up and down the stairs. Boris flinched at these sounds and lowered his ears greatly as Alice raised her hammer with one hand, and grabbed the wolf with her other.

**“I’ll tell you later. But first things first, we get through these rejects and reach Level 14 as soon as possible. If I’m right… there’s someone there that can help us.”**

…

These black, ink flooded halls really didn’t do much for one’s mind. The looping film reels even less as many only played one clip on repeat the whole time, never moving forward enough for the whole short. 

These halls however… they were one of the few safest places to be anymore, ironically enough. The false angel hated them and openly avoided them like the plague, no searchers could even hope to completely form in this amount of ink. The Butcher Gang, despite their clearly rotten away minds had at least enough decency to avoid them after many, many, many deaths… and the Ink Demon himself couldn’t step into a good portion of it thanks to hidden “Protection Symbols” on the walls.

Not that Bendy or Henry completely knew any of that as they stepped into the ink drenched floors. Henry winced as he found the ink was knee high and Bendy gave a small hiss as a minor headache came to him. Though he never really told Henry… but the Protection symbols always gave him a minor headache, but with how many he sensed on this floor it was a searing migraine.

“... Any ideas on where we are bud?” Henry questioned as he looked around the ink filled landscape, only to freeze as a bright light entered his vision, nearly blinding him, and a god awful static filled roar sounded out in the room.

**_“Henry! Run!”_ **

Not needing to be told twice the older man trudged through the ink as fast as he could to try to get away from… whatever the hell had found them. Bendy himself stayed behind Henry’s back, and growled at the strange creature that seemed to focus it’s sights specifically on the ink demon.

After all… Norman wouldn’t give the demon a second chance for what it had done god only knows how long ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess whose got a few weeks more inspiration to go through for this little ride?


	29. Fun and Games

“Joey wants to build… what?” Sammy questioned in the break room as he, Norman and Henry all sat around with some cups of coffee in between each of the men and an ashtray or two. The music director was looking at Norman like he had just grown a second head, while Henry was pinching the bridge of his nose and asking whatever god was out there why Joey would even want something like that.

“Heard it from Mr. Drew himself as he was talking to someone in his office.” Norman sighed deeply as he snuffed out his cigarette into the ashtray. Sammy immediately slapped a hand on his face and Henry just quietly asked a simple “Why?” without expecting a response at all… not that the other two men were going to give him an answer to that.

**“Heard about what?”** the voice of Bendy asked as the little toon practically popped into the room with the resident Janitor, Wally, not to far behind and equally curious on the conversation. Clearly the two were walking and talking as Wally made his rounds before overhearing some of their conversation.

“Joey… wants to build an amusement park.” Henry answered with a heavy sigh that practically made Sammy break his own personal “Two cigarettes only” rule for work. The answer got a wide eyed, excited look from Wally and a tiny excited gasp from Bendy.

“Joey’s gonna be building one? When’s the first line of tickets coming?!” Wally asked, beaming like a child with Bendy not to far behind.

**“Will it be close enough to the studio that I can go? Is it gonna be like the one in one of the shorts?”**

The two could have gone on in excited circles for hours before the designated killjoy decided, now was the time to do his unofficial job.

“The moron wants to build it UNDERGROUND in the studio!” Sammy shouted, throwing his arms down onto the table in anger. Both Wally and Bendy practically froze on the spot from the outburst, Wally being more used to the Music Director’s infamous rage recovered quicker… Bendy on the other hand still wasn’t completely used to them even after almost a full year living at the studio. The little demon felt himself shaking where he stood, and quickly taking more interest in his shoes then anyone else in that very room.

Both Henry and Norman gave Sammy a side glare before the former got up and went over to Bendy’s side and gently placed a hand on the small toon, while Norman just gave Sammy a quiet glare. Wally during this time, seemed to be doing a little mental math before his eyes widened and he turned to walk out of the room.

“If Joey thinks I’m gonna clean both the studio, and an entire Amusement Park, I’m outta here!”

As soon as the janitor was out of the Break Room, two of the four occupants stared after the young man who left, while one was slowly getting the other back into a smiling mood.

“... A dollar says that Wally’s gonna back out before he even begins to rant to Mr. Drew.” Norman casually brought up as he picked up his coffee mug and took a slow sip from it.

“We both know that’s exactly what Franks is going to do Norman.” Sammy sneered, his mood much more sour then it usually is as he pictured all the distractions that would come from Joey Drew’s new crazy idea.

….

The crew that would be responsible for the building of the amusement park came in two weeks after the news was shared. Many of this new crew were surprised to see a living toon like Bendy, but like many new employees they soon got used to the little devil’s presence. Sammy was much more grouchy then usually during the next few months as his department was on the lower level and Bertie’s crew (Though the man would continually correct people to his name being Bertrum, many people still called him Bertie) was constantly going in and out through there.

Bendy would try to sneak down to check it out often but was often turned back by one of the workers, Lacie her name was, for safety reasons. When Boris and Alice came into existence as well, they honestly had no idea what the whole construction was for, but they did their best to ignore it.

One day however, as Henry and Bendy were doing a usual “Swing Session” with Boris and Alice both joining in, Wally came running into the animator’s sectioned off work desk.

“Guys Bertie,” everyone who knew the guy could practically hear the man shouting that his name was Bertrum into the high heavens as Wally continued like he did nothing wrong, “And his crew are finally letting some people in now!”

“I thought Amusement Parks took longer than a year to build.” Henry quietly muttered to himself as both Bendy and Boris gasped in pure excitement, while Alice was just as skeptical as Henry on how quick it seemed to be completed. The small group followed the excited Janitor to the lower levels where the park was being built.

They were greeted by the large sign reading “Bendy Land” as well as three familiar faces. Joey, Bertrum and Lacie were all standing at the opening, Joey and Bertrum were talking while Lacie looked more like she was waiting for them as she raised a hand and waved them over.

“Bout time y’all got here.” Lacie smiled as she saw the excited looks on three of the five people in the group. A few other workers were going in to look at all the hard work the construction crew had done but Lacie wasn’t paying them much mind. 

**“Do Amusement Parks usually take a year to build?”** Alice questioned as she peeked into the park, seeing a few games being played and a few other door ways that were harder for her to peer into from her vantage point.

“Well, usually no. We don’t have many rides built up either due to the time we had to spend building rooms to work for them… but we got enough small things done to do a test run if ya will.” Lacie shrugged as she motioned for the group to follow so she could show them all that they had done so far.

It made sense, Henry supposed as he looked around and saw mostly carnival games setup and the beginnings of one of the rides in a different room. All in all Henry could tell this was gonna take a few more years down the line till everything would be complete.

**“Henry can we play that game?!”** Bendy shouted in excitement as he pointed to the shooting game that was set up. Henry chuckled and the rest of the day he spent in the beginnings of “Bendy Land” just playing a few games with the toons and only quietly laughing to himself when they had just a hard time as anyone else seeing as “Toon Logic” didn’t really work in the real world.

But that wasn’t to say none of them didn’t have a good time down there. Heck, when they all had time, they would go down there just to play some of the games to pass time or even just for the fun of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being completely honest I kinda want to get to know Lacie a little more... SO here I go with working a few things out to see what I can do.

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly just something I'm doing for fun in between writing my other stories as well as drawing things. I really do want to make a solid BATIM story some day but for now I just have a lot of ideas for snippets and scene ideas for one. Maybe when more gets revealed in the game I can settle on a solid idea but for now it's mostly just for fun.
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy them!
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> Somehow this all became a interwoven story and I'm just sitting here staring at the whole thing in both awe and straight up confusion on how I even managed to do that unintentionally.... 
> 
> Positive note I'm glad this is still a lot of fun to just mess with, and that all of you enjoy it so far. Slightly less Positive I also realized this whole thing is an AU now and I have never been good with AU names... I'm also wondering if I should give this an official name other then "BATIM Drabbles" sometime.


End file.
